Hong Kong posts big visitor numbers

Tourism officials in Hong Kong have to be in a good mood these days, after the destination reported that it welcomed 11.22 million visitors during the first quarter of 2012 — that’s a year-on-year increase of 15.6%. Of that, about half (or 5.56 million) were overnight stays, 8.6% more than the same period in the previous year. Hong Kong Tourist Board chairman, James Tien said of the results: “Notwithstanding the volatile global economic environment, we recorded across-the-board increases in long-haul, short-haul and Mainland arrivals during the first quarter of this year. Looking ahead, we expect the growth momentum to sustain into the second quarter of the year. The HKTB is already gearing up for an exciting series of programs this summer to draw even more visitors to Hong Kong.” The Americas played their part in the higher figures, with 426,662 arrivals from the region, January to March, a 1.6% increase. Overnight arrivals from The Americas for that period grew by 1.5%. However, figures for The Americas slipped a little in March alone: their total for the month was 167,827, -1.7% over the same month last year. As for Canada, arrivals during the first quarter totalled 99,785 which was, in fact, another slight negative figure of -0.7% over the same period last year. And looking at March alone, Canadian arrivals in 2012 numbered 39,770, a -1.1% decrease over last year’s March figure of 40,201. In the quarter under review, overnight visitor arrivals accounted for 49.5% of all arrivals, representing a figure of 5.56 million and an 8.6% increase over last year. Same-day visitor arrivals also increased by 23.4% to exceed 5.66 million. Go to http://www.DiscoverHongKong.com/canada for more.