March saw 1,732,326 visitors in Hong Kong, up 28.6% over the same month last year. There was positive growth in both long- and short-haul markets.

The Tourism Board said Mainland arrivals continue to show strongest growth with 979,338 visitors, up 47% over the same month last year in the wake of a steadily rising number of individual travellers, and a huge 110.5% growth on the 2002 figure.

Among the Mainland visitors, 244,988 arrived as individual travellers, a quarter of the total.

Visit scheme, economic growth boosts arrivals

The popularity of the Individual Visit Scheme, the Mainland's continued strong economic growth, additional air capacity and visitors' added convenience in being able to use renminbi credit cards in Hong Kong are factors contributing to the growth.

The comparison with 2002's figures also shows arrivals from Europe and Australia are now ahead of pre-SARS levels, while those from the US and Southeast Asia are nearing a full recovery. Overall, last month's arrivals were 33.5% above those for March 2002.

Executive Director Clara Chong said the board will be benchmarking its arrivals data against 2002's figures over the next few months to provide a more accurate indication of performance.

Most markets recovered to pre-SARS levels

She said: "Last year, arrivals in April, May and June fell to their lowest levels in 12 years as a result of SARS, so we are going to record some quite dramatic growth rates using the normal year-on-year comparison.

"We can see from the 2002 comparisons that the picture is generally quite encouraging, with most markets now recovered close to or above pre-SARS levels. However, there are still many uncertainties that could slow down the recovery momentum, especially now that SARS has resurfaced in northern China.

"Japan remains our most difficult challenge and it is likely to take some time before we can regain the full confidence of that market."

For the first quarter of this year, arrivals from all markets reached 4,935,200, a growth of 14.7% compared with the same period last year and 37.3% compared with 2002.

The Mainland remains Hong Kong's top market

During the quarter, Hong Kong welcomed over 2.9 million Mainland visitors, a 37% increase on last year's figure.

In March, 63% of total arrivals stayed for one night or longer, a similar proportion to the 63.7% who did so in March last year. For the first quarter, 61.3% of all visitors have stayed for one night or more, compared with 63.2% for the same period last year.

Average occupancy rate across all categories of hotels and tourist guest houses in March was 94%, compared with only 79% in March last year.

92% of top tariff hotels occupied

Top tariff hotels showed an especially strong improvement, registering 92% occupancy as against 70% a year earlier.

The strong performance was also seen across all different hotel locations, with those on Hong Kong Island outside the main Central to Causeway Bay tourist corridor attaining 97% average occupancy. The average achieved hotel room rate was $791, an 11.8% year-on-year increase.

For the first quarter, the average occupancy rate stood at 84%, compared with 81% for the same period last year, while average achieved hotel room rate is $740, a 5.1% increase.