Visitor arrivals in May fell 13.4% year-on-year, to 2,027,572, the Hong Kong Tourism Board announced today.

During the month, total arrivals from the short-haul regions dropped 14.3%, as led by the spread of human swine flu worldwide, which has dampened consumers' desire to travel.

The impact was particularly pronounced in arrivals from North Asia (-34.1%) and South and Southeast Asia (-20.9%). Cross-strait direct links continued to affect arrivals from Taiwan, which fell 16.4%.

Both individual and group tour visitors from the Mainland decreased during the month, leading to a drop of 9.6% in overall arrivals. The shortfall was mainly driven by the impact of the human swine flu pandemic, compounded by the promulgation of the travel-agency ordinance.

As for the long-haul regions, visitor arrivals fell 9.5% during the month, as the demand for long-distance travel remained weak, mainly due to the poor economy and consumer sentiment.

For the first five months this year, total visitor arrivals stood at 11,870,775, 1.4% lower than the same period last year. There was a 7.4% gain in year-to-date arrivals from the Mainland.

Overall, 56.7% of all visitors in May stayed for at least one night, 1.7 percentage points lower than in the same month last year. The remaining 43.3% same-day, in-town visitors either returned home or left for another destination on the day they arrived.

For the first five months of the year, nearly 6.83 million - or 57.5% - of total arrivals stayed in the city for at least one night, compared with 58.2% in the same period last year. The remaining 5.04 million, 42.5%, were classified as same-day, in-town visitors.

Hotel occupancy across all categories of hotels in May was 64%, 17 percentage points lower than May last year. The geographic locations with the highest occupancy were Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok, where hotels recorded an average occupancy rate of 71%.  The average achieved hotel room rate across all hotel categories was $973, 14.6% lower than in May last year.