Visitors to Hong Kong hit new high in August

Visitor arrivals in Hong Kong surpassed four million in August, setting a new monthly record, the Hong Kong Tourism Board said Monday. It announced that 4,065,761 people visited Hong Kong last month, up 17.7 percent over the same period last year. Visitor arrivals amounted to 27,236,330 in the first eight months of this year, up 16.2 percent over the same period last year. Chairman of the Tourism Board James Tien said, "Following an historic high of 3.8 million arrivals in July, this is the second month in a row that arrivals set a new monthly record." Overall, during the summer period from June to August, Hong Kong welcomed a total of 10,940,371 visitors, 18.8 percent more than the corresponding period last year, he said. Tien said the number of visitors from China's Mainland and Southeast Asia were high, mainly because of the favorable economic climate and appreciation of currencies in these markets. He forecast that tourists from Mainland and other short-haul markets will continue to grow. "We project Mainland arrivals will go up by around 8 percent to 10 percent during the National Day Golden Week. The Tourism Board has already planned for a series of promotions, which will be rolled out in the coming months to keep up the growth momentum." In August, visitor arrivals from the Mainland grew 23 percent year-on-year to exceed 2.91 million, making it the highest-ever Mainland arrival figure for a single month. Those who traveled under the Individual Visit Scheme reached 1.95 million, accounting for a 22.9 percent increase year-on-year and 67 percent of all Mainland arrivals in the month. Arrivals from Southeast Asia surged 25.2 percent to 250,000.