Hong Kong's visitor arrivals exceeds 1.5 million in August

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 ◆ Hong Kong's visitor arrivals exceeds 1.5 million in August

Visitor arrivals in Hong Kong exceeded 1.5 million in August, an increase of 20.5 percent over the same month of last year, the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) announced Thursday.

Arrivals from the Chinese mainland soared to about 660,000 in August, after reaching a new peak of 565,000 in the previous month. All other markets except the Americas also recorded healthy growth.

For the first eight months of 2002, total arrivals increased by14.4 percent to l0.37 million, leading the HKTB to upgrade its full-year forecast to 15.35 million arrivals, representing 11.8 percent growth on the 2001 result.

Clara Chong, executive director of the HKTB, said the powerful driving force behind Hong Kong's success this year was clearly the Chinese mainland market.

"With the number of authorized mainland travel agencies being further increased from 67 to 528 at the beginning of October, we can expect this trend to continue," she added.