Hong Kong earned $158.95 billion from tourism last year, up 11.7% on 2007, the Tourism Board says.

The average per capita spending of overnight visitors grew 6.2% to reach $5,439, while that of same-day in-town visitors surged 20.9% to $1,498.

Board chairman James Tien cautioned that despite the double-digit rise last year, the global financial downturn is affecting visitor spending, especially those from long-haul regions.

"International tourism will experience less and probably negative growth over the next six to nine months, and the decline in average length of stay and expenditure will be more pronounced than in overall arrivals, given consumers will likely travel closer to home and spend less," Mr Tien said.

The board projected total spending associated with inbound tourism and the average per-capita spending of overnight visitors will fall, depending on economic conditions.

Market performance

Due to the strong Australian dollar exchange rate in the first half of 2008, overnight visitors from Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific had the highest per capita spending at $6,181 last year, up 10.6% on 2007.

Those from Europe, Africa and the Middle East came second at $6,045. American overnight visitors spent an average of $5,760 each. For the short-haul regions, the Mainland recorded the highest per capita spending at $5,676.

Among the same-day arrivals, Mainlanders spent the most in 2008, an average of $2,138 (+16.7%) per capita, as many made use of the convenience offered by the Individual Visit Scheme.

Shopping took up the largest share of spending by both overnight (57.3%) and same-day visitors (88.1%) in 2008. There was a significant rise in entertainment spending (+24.6%), especially among the short-haul visitors from the Mainland, Taiwan and South & Southeast Asia.