Visitors to Hong Kong hit half-year record

HONG KONG -- Hong Kong saw a record tally of almost 20 million visitor arrivals in the first half of this year, a year-on-year increase of 14.7 percent, the tourism authority said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Tourism Board statistics showed that June also saw arrivals rise 15.9 percent to more than 3 million.

According to the statement, the Chinese mainland arrivals rose more than 20 percent to over 12 million, as a result of the individual visit scheme policy and the positive economic environment.

Overnight arrivals from the Chinese mainland grew 11.8 percent to 6.13 million, and 64.5 percent came under the individual visit scheme, 28.6 percent more than the same period last year.

In June, the number of mainland arrivals increased 23.1 percent year-on-year to more than 1.92 million. This marked the fourth consecutive month in which more than 20 percent growth was registered for the Chinese mainland market, it added.

For short-haul markets, arrivals exceeded 3.93 million in this year's first half, 4 percent more than the figure for last year.

Arrivals from the Republic of Korea rose 18.6 percent to 500,000. In June, the figure rose 37.3 percent to almost 80,000.

For Taiwan, cumulative arrivals were similar to last year at 1.05 million. Despite cross-strait direct links, the number of overnight visitors with higher spending was 11 percent higher than last year. In June, overnight Taiwanese arrivals surged 32.9 percent, bringing overall arrivals from the island up 7.7 percent to surpass 180,000.

The Tourism Board Chairman James Tien forecast growth to continue in the second half of the year.

"We are closely monitoring developments in the European and American financial markets, which might impact the global economy and tourism." Tien was quoted as saying in the statement.