061031en03007

	news.gov.hk
	From Hong Kong's Information Services Department

October 31, 2006

Tourism

September visitor arrivals up 2.4%

Tourist arrivals in September exceeded 1.83 million, up 2.4% on the same month last year, the Tourism Board says.

The total number of arrivals from January to September rose 9.5% to more than 18.57 million.

In September, more than 1.1 million arrivals (60.3%) stayed in Hong Kong for at least one night, with the remainder of over 725,000 (39.7%) classified as same-day in-town visitors.

This takes the cumulative January-September total for overnight visitors to more than 11.65 million (62.7%), while more than 6.92 million (37.3%) left on the day of arrival.

Arrivals from key regional source markets all registered increases, except Taiwan which fell 2.9% to 166,143. Visitors from the Mainland grew 0.6% to 930,532; South & Southeast Asia (188,642, up 9.5%); North Asia (168,76, +2.0%); Europe, Africa & the Middle East (151,650, +8.8%); the Americas (120,522, +2.0%), and Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific (61,949, +6.4%).

Mainland visitors represented 50.8% of September's arrivals. Of these, 427,026 travelled under the Individual Visit Scheme, 45.9% of the Mainland total, and 14.9% more than the same month last year.