Tourism arrivals in October hit a new monthly record of 2.14 million, up 6.4% on the same month last year. It also raised cumulative arrivals for the first 10 months of the year to 19,098,986, a year-on-year increase of 7.5%.

The Tourism Board said the rise was largely driven by robust performance in several long-haul markets. Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific registered 21.9% growth, which boosted monthly arrivals from the region to 58,358.

Europe, Africa and the Middle East grew 17.7% to 205,177 while South and Southeast Asia saw year-on-year growth of 12.9% with 219,141 arrivals.

About 62.6% of all visitors in stayed in the city for at least one night, compared with 60% last year.

Occupancy across all categories of hotels and tourist guest houses in October was 88%, a one percentage-point drop on last year that partially reflects the 6.2% rise in Hong Kong's room supply.