Hong Kong Tourism Board: Release of provisional visitor arrivals for 2010
The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) announced today (7 January) that provisional total arrivals in 2010 reached 36.03 million, a 21.8%-increase compared to 2009. These were made up by approximately 22.47 million Mainland arrivals (+27.0%), 8.72 million short-haul (excluding Mainland) arrivals (+16.5%), and 4.84 million long-haul arrivals (+9.6%).
Commenting on the satisfactory growth in 2010 arrivals, HKTB Chairman Mr James Tien said: "Hong Kong's tourism experienced a strong rebound in 2010 after the severe blow dealt by the financial tsunami and human swine influenza in 2009. The result could be attributed to the collaborative effort between the SAR Government, the local travel trade and the HKTB in rolling out various promotions, such as the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Carnival, the Wine and Dine Festival and the New Year Countdown Celebrations, as well as the policies implemented by the Central Government to facilitate individual visits by Mainland residents.
"Looking into 2011, Asia will be the key driver in the global tourism growth. The HKTB will maintain our close partnership with the travel trade to uphold Hong Kong's image as an international, cosmopolitan city. Meanwhile, we hope the Central Government will extend the Individual Visit Scheme to even more Mainland cities, such as the major cities in the three provinces of Northeast China, and to the entire Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces. We also hope that the measures for individual visits by both Guangdong residents and non-Guangdong residents residing in Shenzhen could be extended to other cities in the province, so that we could bring even greater momentum to the growth of Mainland arrivals."
(Full breakdown on arrivals by markets for December 2010 and January-December 2010 will be released later this month.)