Board chairman James Tien said today the half-yearly performance was on track, adding the board remains cautiously optimistic on the outlook.

"Eyeing the pent-up demand and the sustained China fever post-Olympics the board is already working with travel-trade partners in various long-haul markets, including the US and France, to develop China-Hong Kong combo packages for capturing the visitor traffic," he said.

Robust performance continued in high-potential and emerging markets in the first six months, including South Korea (27.1%), India (19.2%) and Russia (24.8%). Growth was also found in arrivals from the Mainland (11.2%), North Asia (9.4%), South and Southeast Asia (8.1%), Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific (7.6%), Europe, Africa and the Middle East (5.6%) and the Americas (5.1%).

In June, Mainland visitors recorded the largest growth at 12.4% while North Asia grew 6.9%. However, arrivals from other places fell 0.1% to 6.2%.

Some 8.26 million, or 58.2%, of the total arrivals in January-June stayed in the city for at least one night, dipping slightly from 60.5% on the same period last year. In June 58.5% of all visitors stayed in the city for at least one night, down one percentage point on last year.

Hotel occupancy across all categories of hotel in January-June 2008 was 83%, same as last year. The average achieved hotel room rate across all hotel categories was $1,238, about 4.8% higher than the same period last year.

In June hotel occupancy was 81%, one percentage point lower than last June. The average achieved hotel room rate across all hotel categories in the month was $1,129, 5.4% higher than last June.