Hong Kong Visitor Arrivals for June and First Half 2008

Visitor arrivals to Hong Kong in the first six months of 2008 grew by 8.9% to 14,185,504. The figure includes 2,147,926 arrivals to the city in June, which represents a year-on-year growth of 5.6%.

Mr James Tien, HKTB Chairman, said that the half-yearly performance was well on track. “Notwithstanding the recent downward trend of international arrivals, as seen in June, which was led by various factors in the macro environment, we remain cautiously optimistic of the outlook and our tourism industry’s performance in the second half of the year,” Mr Tien said. “Eyeing the pent-up demand and the sustained China fever post-Olympics, the HKTB 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.”

Among the individual markets, various high-potential and emerging markets continued their robust performance and delivered remarkable results in the first six months. These included South Korea (500,713, +27.1%), India (191,176, +19.2%) and Russia (19,905, +24.8%).

The breakdown on arrivals from different regional source markets in January-June and in June 2008 is as follows:

  Overnight vs Same-Day in-Town Visitors

Close to 8.26 million or 58.2% of the total arrivals in January-June stayed in the city for at least one night, compared with 60.5% in the same period last year. The remaining 5.93 million (41.8%) were classified as same-day in-town visitors.

In June 2008, 58.5% of all visitors stayed in the city for at least one night. This is one percentage point lower than in June 2007. The remaining 41.5% were classified as same-day in-town visitors, who either returned home or left for another destination on the same day as arrival.

Hotel Occupancy

Hotel occupancy across all categories of hotel in January-June 2008 was 83%, same as for the first half of 2007. The average achieved hotel room rate across all hotel categories was HK$1,238, 4.8% higher than in the same months in 2007.

In June 2008, the hotel occupancy was 81%, one percentage point lower than in June 2007. The geographic location with the highest occupancy rate in June was Tsim Sha Tsui, where hotels recorded a rate of 84%. The average achieved hotel room rate across all hotel categories in June was HK$1,129, 5.4% higher than that of last June.

See also: Hong Kong Visitor Arrivals for May 2008 and other recent news regarding: Travel News Asia, Promotions, New Hotels, Hong Kong, Visitor Arrivals, Hong Kong Visitor Arrivals, June 2008