VISITOR ARRIVALS SHOWING NEARLY 16% GROWTH

Visitor arrivals in Hong Kong from January to October 2000 totalled 10,714,5621, an increase of 15.8% over the same period last year, according to figures released today (1 December) by the Hong Kong Tourist Association (HKTA).

“With this continued strong growth, we are now confident that we shall be able to surpass our mid-year forecast of 12.5 million visitors for the full year,” commented the HKTA’s Acting Executive Director, Mrs Grace Lee. “We are expecting the final figure to come close to the 1996 record of 12.97¹ million.”

For the month of October, arrivals were 1,194,407, a growth of 13.0%, over the same month in 1999. More than two-thirds of the increased numbers were from Taiwan (+22.4%) and Mainland China (+21.6%). Despite the encouraging overall figures, growth in the long-haul markets slipped marginally during October.

To provide the community and the travel trade with a more in-depth interpretation of the statistics, the HKTA is from this month onwards including a breakdown of arrivals into same-day visitors (i.e. those leaving for other destinations on the same day as arrival) and overnight visitors (those staying for one night or longer). Hong Kong is among the very few destinations in Asia to release such comprehensive visitor information.

This new length-of-stay analysis shows that so far this year, same-day visitors accounted for 32.4% of total arrivals, compared with 30.9% for the full 12 months of 1999. By far the majority of these are visitors from Taiwan, of whom 70.1% currently depart for other destinations on the same day – mostly en route to or from Mainland China.

“This is a changing market situation that the tourism industry as a whole needs to address, so we want to make the data openly available, to assist in developing relevant new products and services,” Mrs Lee explained.

She added that while Hong Kong clearly needed to find ways of encouraging longer stays, and thus of increasing visitor spending, there was still plenty of cause for optimism. “Total visitor receipts increased by more than 10% in the first nine months, and the number of visitors staying for one night or longer is likely to exceed 8.5 million for the full year, which will still make Hong Kong the leading destination in Asia other than Mainland China,” Mrs Lee noted. “Moreover, the fact that so many visitors are utilising Hong Kong shows that the SAR is not only retaining, but strengthening its role as a major regional hub.”

Tourism Receipts

The latest quarterly update of tourism receipts, for the period January to September 2000, shows that visitors from Mainland China are not only coming to Hong Kong more frequently, they are also spending more during their stays – a per capita average of HK$4,824, which is 7.9% more than for the same period a year ago. Individual spending across markets as a whole has nevertheless fallen to a per capita average of HK$4,522, partly due to the growing proportion of same-day visitors.

Despite this, total tourism receipts grew by 10.7% to HK$44.7 billion during the first nine months of this year, in line with the overall increase in visitor numbers.

Hotel Occupancy

Hotel occupancy for the year to date stands at 83%, compared with 79% for the first 10 months of 1999. Research recently released by PricewaterhouseCoopers shows that Hong Kong enjoys the best occupancy rates of any city in the region.

Analysis by Markets

All of the HKTA’s short-haul market regions showed encouraging growth during the month of October, led by Taiwan with 218,993 visitors, an increase of 22.4% over the same month in 1999. Other notable gains were recorded by Mainland China (317,061, +21.6%); North Asia (146,557, +13.3%); and South and Southeast Asia (152,747, +10.8%).

In the long-haul markets, The Americas (136,305 visitors) registered a modest 5.5% growth in October, but there were small reductions in arrivals from Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific (37,716 visitors, –0.4%) and Europe, Africa and the Middle East (149,838, –0.7%). Both of these markets, however, have shown positive growth for the year to date, at 15.1% and 6.3% respectively.

Many European markets are currently being dampened by the weakness of the euro, which is also having a knock-on effect on markets such as New Zealand that generate stop-over traffic in Hong Kong.

Arrivals from the United States showed a 5.6% increase, helped by the promotion of cultural packages in magazines and with tour operators Japan & Orient and Hibiscus Tours. Canadian arrivals grew 3.7%.

Most individual Asian markets showed double-digit growth, led by South Korea with 33,331 arrivals (+29.7%). The Hong Kong International Toys & Gifts Show, Hong Kong Electronics Fair, Hong Kong International Hardware Fair and Asia-Pacific Leather Fair all attracted business travellers from South Korea, while there was an autumnal surge of honeymoon couples stopping off in Hong Kong.

October’s line-up of trade fairs also helped increase arrivals from Thailand (24,929, +27.4%), Malaysia (25,272, +12.7%) and India (14,591, +18.1%). Arrivals from India, one of Hong Kong’s fastest growing markets, were further boosted by families taking advantage of the Deepavali Festival to visit friends and relatives.

Arrivals from Singapore grew by 23.7% to 32,371 due to a long public holiday weekend at the end of October, a number of corporate incentive travel groups and business generated during a three-day consumer travel fair by NATAS Holidays.

Hong Kong’s gastronomic delights helped attract a 22.4% increase in visitors from Taiwan, in particular the HKTA’s Autumn CrabFest promotion which was vigorously marketed by a number of leading travel agents. The unstable political and economic situation in Taiwan is also thought to have led some leisure travellers to take short breaks in Hong Kong instead of planned long-haul trips.

Arrivals from Mainland China grew by 21.6% to 317,061, with strong market demand over the seven-day National Day holiday at the beginning of October.

The only Asian market to show decline in October was The Philippines (20,804, –24.9%), as the current unstable political situation and the depreciation of the peso has led many travellers to put their plans on hold. This situation may well continue for the next few months.


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NB The HKTA began including non-Macanese visitors arriving from Macau in January 2000, taking into account the significant increases over the past few years in international visitors entering Hong Kong via Macau, and through Macau International Airport. To ensure that overall year-on-year comparisons are valid, all 1996 and 1999 figures quoted here have been adjusted to include non-Macanese arrivals from Macau.