Hong Kong Visitor Arrivals in September 2009

Visitor arrivals to Hong Kong reached 2,250,718 in September 2009, 2.5% more than in September 2008. Cumulatively, arrivals from January to September totalled 21,159,973, with the year-to-date shortfall further improved from –3.4% in August to –2.8% in September.

The increase in arrivals in September was mainly driven by continued gain in Mainland China, as well as seasonal growth in South and Southeast Asia. For Mainland China, with improved travel sentiments, the market achieved notable growth (+6.1%) over the large base in September 2008, when many Mainland travellers resumed their outbound travel post-Olympics.

As for South and Southeast Asia (+18%), arrivals were mainly boosted by the Eid al-Fitr holidays in various markets. Besides Indonesia (+87.6%), Singapore (+17%) and India (+14.9%) also showed remarkable growth, with the latter enjoying increased flight capacity since September 2009.

Taiwan and North Asia, however, continued their negative trend, as arrivals from the island were impacted by direct flights, while the weak Won in South Korea continued to take a toll on outbound travel.

Meanwhile, the shortfall continued to narrow in the long-haul market regions, with Europe, Africa and the Middle East achieving growth of 2.6%. The increase owed to the lower base of arrivals last September, when long-haul travel was affected by the dual impact of the Mainland visa policy and the global financial crisis.

Cumulative Hong Kong Visitor Arrivals for January-September 2009

With the exception of Mainland China, all market regions continued to show negative growth in the first nine months of 2009. Nevertheless, their shortfall has further narrowed, with single-digit decline registered for the long-haul market regions (3,019,335, -9.2%). As for the short-haul regions (excluding Mainland China and Macau), arrivals totalled 4,806,091, a shortfall of 11.6% over the same period of last year.

Overall, some 54.7% of all visitors to Hong Kong in September stayed in the city for at least one night, 1.6 percentage points lower than in the same month last year. The remaining 45.3% same-day in-town visitors either returned home or left for another destination on the same day they arrived.

From January to September 2009, some 12 million or 57.1% of total arrivals stayed in the city for at least one night, compared with 58.5% during the same period last year. The remaining 9.08 million (42.9%) were classified as same-day in-town visitors.

Hotel occupancy across all categories of hotels in September 2009 was 76%, three percentage points lower than in September 2008. The geographic locations with the highest occupancy were Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok, where hotels recorded an average occupancy rate of 83%. The average achieved hotel room rate across all hotel categories was HK$1,042, 15.1% lower than in September 2008.

See also: Hong Kong Visitor Arrivals in August 2009 and Hong Kong Visitor Arrivals in September 2008

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