Hong Kong reports 12 m visitors during H1 2013
Hong Kong : Hong Kong recorded around 12 million overnight visitor arrivals between January and June 2013, an 8.7per cent year-on-year increase and 47.1 per cent of all visitor arrivals during the period.
In the first half of the year, overnight arrivals from Mainland China reached 7.84 million, 16.2% more than in the same period in 2012.
According to an Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) survey, the number of overnight Mainland visitors who came to Hong Kong for vacation grew 19.4%, with growth from both Guangdong Province (+20.7%) and non-Guangdong areas (+18.5%).
In the same period, short-haul arrivals to Hong Kong dropped 4.2% year-on-year, since Japan drew away many regional travellers with its weak Yen. By market, overnight arrivals from Japan fell 29.1%. Taiwan, however, registered a 4.1% increase in overnight arrivals, which could be attributed to the free, online, pre-arrival, visa-registration service offered to Taiwan residents by the Hong Kong SAR Government. Also, direct cross-strait flights diverted business travellers, leaving more available airline seats for vacation travellers from Taiwan. In addition, overnight arrivals from Thailand rose 15.0%.
As for long-haul markets, under the impact of volatile economic conditions, there was a 4.1% decrease in overnight long-haul arrivals to Hong Kong.
The new markets achieved satisfactory results, with overnight arrivals up 7.2%, mainly because of increased flight capacity. Russia saw particularly robust growth, with overnight arrivals up 24.6% and overall arrivals rising 26.3% to about 120,000, making Russia Hong Kong’s second biggest European market, just after the UK. Also recording growth in overnight arrivals to Hong Kong were India, the Gulf Co-operation Council region and Vietnam.
Overall, Hong Kong received a total of 25.36 million visitor arrivals in the first half of 2013, up 13.6% from the corresponding period in 2012.
In the second half of the year, the HKTB will launch a series of market promotions to further attract overnight visitors and open up new visitor sources:
Long-haul markets: The HKTB will participate in large-scale trade shows in different visitor source markets, including the World Travel Market in London, England in November.
Short-haul markets: During major promotional periods, such as the “Hong Kong Wine and Dine Festival” and “Hong Kong WinterFest”, the HKTB plans to launch special tourism products to encourage visitors to extend their stay in Hong Kong.- HKTB
