Hong Kong Visitor Arrivals in April 2010

Hong Kong visitor arrivals for the month of April 2010 amounted to 2,796,311, a year-on-year increase of 14.6%.

Total arrivals from January to April this year accumulated to 11,420,999, 16% higher than last year’s figure for the same period. For the first time ever, visitor arrivals exceeded the 10-million mark within the first four months of a year.

In April, Mainland China continued to be Hong Kong’s leading source market and sustained double-digit increase in visitor arrivals as a result of persistent economic growth and strong travel and consumption sentiments in the Mainland.

Other short-haul markets also recorded growth of almost 15%. The performance of North Asia and South and Southeast Asia was especially notable. As the global economic environment improves and business activities pick up, the number of business travellers has increased, leading to a rise in arrivals from the regions. In particular, arrivals from Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand registered growth that ranged from 15% to almost 30%. In South Korea, the appreciation of the Won currency created stronger propensity to travel, causing arrivals from the country to surge by almost 30% this April.

Meanwhile, the emerging markets continued their upward growth trend. While increased flight capacity has driven up visitor arrivals from India by 65.5% in April, the gain in the Middle East (+22.6%) resulted from better economic conditions and travel sentiments. For Russia, the phenomenal increase of 108.5% was owed to the positive impact of visa-free arrangement and the relatively lower base for comparison.

As for the long-haul markets, most market regions registered steady growth compared to the same period in 2009. Notwithstanding the eruption of volcano Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland, which incapacitated air traffic in various European countries for a short period of time, there was no major impact on the overall arrivals from the related source markets in April.

This April, overnight visitors accounted for 56.4%, or 1,577,591 out of all visitor arrivals to Hong Kong, which represented a 14% increase compared to April last year. Overnight visitors from most market regions rose by at least 10%, with particularly outstanding performance in Mainland China (+17.6%) and such other short-haul markets as South Korea (+27.1%), India (+61.5%) and Indonesia (+28%).

For the first four months of this year, overnight visitors made up 56.2% of all visitors to Hong Kong, reaching 6,418,030 and representing a 13%-rise compared to the figure in the same period last year. Among the major market regions, Taiwan experienced the most significant increase in overnight arrivals at 20.4%, reflecting a rise of vacation visitors from the island.

Hotel occupancy across all categories of hotels in April 2010 was 86%, 7 percentage points higher than in April 2009. Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok were the geographic locations with the highest occupancy rate, which averaged 91%. The average achieved hotel room rate across all hotel categories was HK$1,239, 15.2% higher than in the same month last year. Cumulatively, occupancy rate for the first four months of this year was 85%.

See also: Hong Kong Visitor Arrivals in April 2009 and Hong Kong Visitor Arrivals in March 2010

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