Number of Visitors to HK Soars 11.8 Percent in March

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 ◆ Number of Visitors to HK Soars 11.8 Percent in March

Hong Kong received nearly 1.3 million visitors in March 2002, the second highest monthly total on record and an 11.8 percent increase compared with the same month in 2001, reported the Hong Kong Tourism Board recently.

As in previous recent months, visitors from the Chinese mainland accounted for a lion's share of the increase, recording 41.1 percent growth in March.

There were also positive growth figures from Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas, suggesting that confidence is steadily returning to the long-haul markets, said the report.

Arrivals from Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific showed a modest decrease of 0.5 percent.

Among the other short-haul markets, North Asia recorded 1.3 percent growth in March while South and Southeast Asia showed a small decline of 0.4 percent.

Arrivals from Taiwan fell five percent, but this pre-dates full implementation of the electronic Permit facility, which is expected to boost arrivals from this market in the coming months.

Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) Executive Director Clara Chong said that with three months' results now on hand, clear and generally encouraging trends were beginning to emerge.

"We can see the long-haul markets moving steadily back into positive growth, a pattern we expect to continue in the coming months, " she commented.

"On the other hand, we can see mixed performances from other parts of Asia, closely elated to prevailing economic conditions,"she said.

"The shining star remains the mainland market. We knew that the abolition of tour group quotas and an increase in the number of licensed tour agents would boost the mainland market substantially, but first-quarter growth of more than 40 percent exceeds our best expectations. We have also been encouraged to see a further surge in mainland arrivals this last week, to coincide with the long May Day holiday," Chong said.