HONG KONG'S TOURISM CONTINUES STRONG REBOUND WITH MONTHLY ARRIVALS AVERAGING OVER ONE MILLION

The strong growth in tourism to Hong Kong continued in May when arrivals
reached 1,069,168 up 18.1% on May 1999. This brought the total for the first
five months of the year to 5,178,936.

The buoyant situation is reflected in hotel occupancy figures, which averaged 81% in May for all categories of accommodation, compared to 76% a year ago. The average occupancy rate for the first five months of 2000 is 82% up from 78% in the same period in 1999.

Virtually every market recorded strong growth last month. Topping the list was
South Korea (up 39.2%), fuelled by a strong economy and a successful special
promotion by HKTA, Cathay Pacific Airways and wholesalers. India (up 30.2%)
further consolidated its position as an emerging market due to better package offers and increased stopover traffic en route to the Mainland.

The Mainland itself remains Hong Kong's biggest source market, accounting for
almost a third of all visitors in May and showing a 27.9% increase in numbers over
the same month last year. It has been noted that the planned introduction of more
China operators for Hong Kong tours has created more competitive rates and better services among existing operators.

Attractive packages and increased travel over holiday periods kept Singapore strong [up 25.1%], while Japan traffic (up 21.5%) was boosted by the "Golden Week" holiday and positive response to a special HKTA promotion. Taiwan, Hong Kong's second biggest source market ahead of Japan, recorded 16.5% growth in May, helped by Cathay Pacific and Dragonair special promotions involving stopovers in Hong Kong en route to the Mainland.

Among the long-haul markets, the United Kingdom is reviving strongly with a
21.3% increase in visitors compared to May 1999. This reflects a strong economy
and increase in business traffic to the region. Travel from Canada (up 19.3%) was
boosted by the start of daily Air Canada services between Toronto and Hong Kong and special promotions by Cathay Pacific. The United States (up 15.5%), Australia (up 17.6%) and New Zealand (up 15.4%) were all stimulated by good airline offers and cheap packages, particularly from Australia. The "Le French May" promotion in Hong Kong brought many business and incentive visitors from France, helping increase traffic by 13.9% over last year.

The only markets to show declines were Indonesia (down 30.1%), caused mostly by seasonal changes in holidays compared to last year; Portugal (down 28.3%), as a result of decreased travel since the Macau Handover and a high base last year; and the Netherlands (down 11.7%), partly due to stiff competition from other Asian destinations.

In commenting on the May figures, HKTA Executive Director Amy Chan said:
"Hong Kong is well and truly back on the world map as a top travel destination.
Our marketing of the lesser known treasures of Hong Kong is giving leisure visitors new reasons to come, while our improving economy is attracting many more business visitors who also see Hong Kong as the natural gateway to China and the rest of Asia."


----------------------

Since January 2000, the HKTA has included the hitherto unrecorded non-Macanese international arrivals from Macau in its overall statistics. [Prior to the opening of the Macau International Airport in November 1995, such arrivals were minimal and it is only in the past year or so that the numbers have become
significant]. To ensure that overall year-on-year comparisons are valid, the 1999 figures listed in the charts have been adjusted to include the non-Macanese arrivals from Macau under their country of residence e.g. the original May 1999 arrivals total from Taiwan has been increased from 155,808 to 160,325.