STRONG MAINLAND ARRIVALS GROWTH OFFSETTING DIFFICULT MARKETS ELSEWHERE

Visitor arrivals figures for October issued by the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) today (26 November) show that strong growth from Mainland China is continuing to mitigate the severe impact of the US terrorist attacks on other markets.

In total, October arrivals were just 3.3% down compared with the same month in 2000, after the number of Mainland visitors grew by 25.5% to 397,809. This encouraging figure can be partly attributed to the Mainland’s week-long National Day holiday at the beginning of the month.

All other markets, however, showed a decline, led by The Americas (–24.7%), North Asia (–19.0%) and Europe, Africa & the Middle East (–13.7%). Arrivals from Australia, New Zealand & South Pacific fell 12.4%, those from South & Southeast Asia 11.1% and those from Taiwan by 9.7%.

The HKTB’s Executive Director Clara Chong said that although Hong Kong was certainly suffering from the downturn in travel since 11 September, it was performing better than most other markets in the region, if not the world. “The Mainland Chinese are continuing to travel and we are fortunate that Hong Kong remains the premier destination for them, as well as the gateway for much of their travel elsewhere,” she said.

The relatively small decrease in total arrivals for October means that for the first 10 months of 2001, cumulative arrivals are still showing positive growth of 5.3%.

Arrivals from Mainland China are currently 14.6% ahead of the same period in 2000, while North Asia continues to register growth of 3.4% and Taiwan growth of 2.2%. Arrivals from The Americas, however, have now slipped into negative growth of –0.3% after showing an increase for the first three quarters of 2001.

“While the rest of this year is likely to remain very difficult for the industry, the situation is starting to look a little more encouraging,” Ms Chong observed. “Growth from the Mainland remains buoyant and there are signs that confidence is now creeping back into the other markets. We believe it should still be possible to achieve 3% to 4% growth for the full year.”

Besides Mainland China, a few individual countries countered the trend by posting positive growth in October. Arrivals from the Philippines grew 16.5%, helped by some attractive airline packages and a five-day holiday at the end of the month. India, a buoyant market all year, produced a 13.6% increase. In Europe, arrivals from the Netherlands grew 2.2% and now show 10.5% growth for the year to date.

Hotel Occupancy

Average hotel occupancy across all categories in October was 76%, compared with 86% for the same month in 2000. For the year to date, average occupancy of 78% has been achieved, compared with 83% for January to October 2000. In the intervening period, there has been a 2.3% growth in the daily number of rooms available for sale.

Top grade (High Tariff A) hotels continue to be experiencing the most difficult conditions, registering 71% occupancy in October compared with 88% in the same month last year. In contrast, medium tariff hotels eased only five percentage points to 79%, from 84% in October 2000.

Length of Stay

During October, 63.2% of visitors stayed for one night or longer, compared with 65.5% in October 2000. This small slippage reflects Hong Kong’s growing role as a regional air hub.

Taiwan visitors continue to be the shortest stayers, with only 24.0% staying overnight during the month. At the other end of the scale, 81.7% of all visitors from The Americas, 79.6% from Australia, New Zealand & South Pacific, and 74.5% from South & Southeast Asia did so.

For the first nine months of 2001, average length of stay increased slightly to 3.05 nights. Visitors from Australia, New Zealand & South Pacific were the longest stayers at an average 3.95 nights, a 10.0% year-on-year increase, followed by those from Europe, Africa & Middle East (3.90 nights, +6.8%) and Mainland China (3.40 nights, +0.9%).

Tourism Receipts, January – September 2001

The HKTB also issued today its tourism receipts figures for the first nine months of 2001. These show that total visitor spending rose 5.4% to HK$45.36 billion, with Mainland China (+14.7%), The Americas (+12.9%) and Australia, New Zealand & South Pacific (+9.6%) showing the strongest growth. On the other hand, there were small decreases in total spending by visitors from North Asia (–4.8%), Taiwan (–4.3%) and South & Southeast Asia (–2.2%).

“It is important to note that the period covered by these figures is only up to the end of September, so they can only reflect a small part of the impact on tourism of the terrorist attacks in the US and their aftermath,” Ms Chong explained. “Clearly, with the downturn in arrivals we are now experiencing, especially in the long-haul markets, we can expect to see a corresponding fallback in total receipts for the last quarter of 2001.”

In terms of per capita spending, some encouraging gains were shown in the long-haul markets in the first nine months of the year. Visitors from Australia, New Zealand & South Pacific increased their average spending by 15.5% to HK$4,542 per capita, while those from The Americas remained the highest spenders at an average HK$5,310 per capita, 9.3% more than in the same period in 2000. Europe, Africa & the Middle East saw a 5.7% increase to HK$4,732.

Visitors from Mainland China continue to be the second highest spenders at HK$4,877 per capita, a 1.1% increase, while those from North Asia (Japan and South Korea) are now the lowest at HK$3,985. This can be attributed to the current economic downturn which is severely affecting those markets.