The rise in visitors from mainland China continues to drive Hong Kong’s tourism industry.
According to the latest data from the Hong Kong Tourism Board, total arrivals to the city climbed 13.8% to 4.37 million in July 2012. But arrivals from the mainland reached 3.26m – 21.9% more than the same month last year. Chinese visitors now account for almost three-quarters of all arrivals to Hong Kong.
Other source markets didn’t fare so well, however. Visitation from long-haul markets declined 5.4% to 363,400, with arrivals from Europe (-5.1% to 162,100), the Americas (-4.9% to 143,600) and Australia and New Zealand (-7.4% to 57,800) all dropping off.
Arrivals from short-haul markets, excluding mainland China, also fell – down 4.6% year-on-year to 742,000. The main contribution to the decline was an 11.6% reduction in visitors from South & Southeast Asia.
For the first seven months of the year Hong Kong welcomed 26.68m visitors – 15.2% more than the same period last year.