The first quarter saw visitor arrivals for meeting, incentive, convention and exhibition purposes exceed 280,000, a 30% rise on last year, the Tourism Board says.

Most market regions benefited from the recovering economy and recorded double-digit growth, with the highest from the South and Southeast Asia (59.1%), followed by the Americas (52.3%).

Board chairman James Tien said visitor arrivals in this category last year were affected by the global financial crisis and the human swine flu outbreak. Many corporations also put on hold their corporate meetings and incentive travel activities.

With the global economy rebounding since the beginning of the year, there has been a rise in the number of meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions in Hong Kong, driving growth in overall arrivals for these events.

"We expect this upward trend will continue into the next few quarters should the current growth momentum of the economy sustain," Mr Tien said.

Last year the board successfully secured several hundred such events to be held in Hong Kong before or during 2013, which are expected to bring more than 150,000 additional visitors to the city.