Hong Kong welcomed 11.22 million visitors in the first quarter of 2012 – 15.6% more than the same period last year.
According to the latest data from the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB), the result was driven by a 21.1% surge in arrivals from mainland China, which contributed 7.90 million visitors, or 70.4% of the total.
Arrivals from North Asia (excluding China) also performed well, rising 10.6% to nearly 650,000. This was led by arrivals from South Korea (+17.2% to 300,000), while the number of visitors from Japan increased 5.3% to 340,000.
For Southeast Asia, expanded flight capacity allowed arrivals to increase 6.6% to 711,000, while the number of visitors from Europe rose by 9.4% to 483,400. Visitation from the UK recorded strong 12.3% growth, which the HKTB said could be attributed to the promotion of travel packages for the Hong Kong Sevens event in March. The most significant growth from Europe however, was a 72.3% jump in the number of Russian arrivals. With 51,000 visitors, Russia is now Hong Kong’s fourth biggest European market, after the UK, Germany and France.
Quarterly arrivals from Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific rose 3.3% to 186,200, while those from the Americas edged up 1.6% to 426,700.
“Notwithstanding the volatile global economic environment, we recorded across-the-board increase in mainland, short-haul and long-haul arrivals during the first quarter of this year. The number of overnight arrivals also went up by 8.6%, with 10%-increase for Mainland China and even 20%-increase for South Korea and the Philippines, the majority of whom belonged to overnight vacation arrivals, fully underlying Hong Kong’s appeal as a leading leisure destination in Asia,” said HKTB Chairman, James Tien.
“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 programmes this summer to draw even more visitors to Hong Kong,” he added.