March arrivals top 2.16 million
March visitors to Hong Kong exceeded 2.16 million, representing a 2.9% year-on-year increase, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB). This brings the cumulative arrivals for the first three months of 2007 to more than 6.61 million, an increase of 6.3%.
The number of Mainland arrivals in March fell 3.5% year-on-year to 1,086,645. However, the cumulative Mainland arrivals for the first quarter of 2007 grew 5.2% year-on-year to reach more than 3.77 million. Visitors traveling under the Individual Visit Scheme numbered more than 553,000 in March, which is 50.9% of the Mainland total arrivals and a 7.3% year-on-year increase. The 3.5% drop is largely attributed to a slowdown in travel after the Chinese New Year holiday.
Total arrivals from the Americas increased 8.5% in March to 161,509; the first-quarter arrivals from the region totalled 395,396, up 8.5% year-on-year.
Hotel occupancy across all categories of hotels reached 89% in March, down 2% compared to March 2006. The average achieved hotel room rate across all hotel categories was US$168.58, 18.2% higher than in March 2006. The average hotel occupancy for January-March 2007 was 85%, 3% lower than in 2006, while the average achieved hotel room rate was US$150.25, or 14.1% more than in the same period of 2006.
According to the HKTB, the number of Mainland visitor arrivals during this year’s Labor Day Golden Week (May 1–7) grew 30% year-on-year.
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