Tourism shines in gloomy economy

Tourism continues to bring in more revenue for Hong Kong despite a general slowdown in tourism worldwide.

Hong Kong's semi-annual Economic Report 2012 said inbound tourism “. . . was the only bright spot, thanks to thriving growth of the mainland visitors."

The inbound tourism sector's performance showed total number of visitor arrivals surging by 15.5% to 22.3 million visitors for the first-half of this year compared to a year earlier.

Of this total, mainland visitors surged by 23% to 15.6 million in the first half, accounting for some 70% percent of total visitor arrivals. Of total visitors, same-day visitors soared 25% in the first half compared to the 6.8% growth in overnight visitors.

As a result, the share of same-day visitors of total arrivals grew from 47% a year earlier to 51% in the first half of this year.

The average hotel room occupancy rate in Hong Kong stayed at a high 87% in the first half of 2012. In parallel, the average achieved hotel room rate rose by 12% over a year earlier to HK$1,446.