Visitor arrivals hit 29.59 million in 2009, up 0.3% on the previous year, the Tourism Board says. The number of Mainland tourists grew 6.5% to 17.96 million.

Of the total Mainland arrivals, 10.59 million arrived under the Individual Visit Scheme - 59% of the total and 10.1% more than in 2008.

Arrivals from short-haul regions fell 9.3%. North Asia showing an 18.2% drop as outbound travel from Japan was affected by the weak economy, while that of South Korea was hurt by the Korean currency's depreciation. Taiwan arrivals dropped 10.3% due to the continued impact of the direct links with the Mainland, which affected business arrivals.

About 57.2% of visitors stayed in the city for at least one night, down 1.5 percentage points on the previous year.

The average hotel occupancy rate across all categories of hotels was 78%, seven percentage points lower than the previous year. Hotels in Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok recorded the highest average occupancy over the year, at 84%. The average achieved hotel room rate across all hotel categories and districts was $1,023, down 16.3% on 2008.