Visitor arrivals in May fell 13.4% year-on-year to 2,027,572 according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board.

During the month, total arrivals from the short-haul regions fell 14.3%, as led by the spread of human swine flu worldwide, which has dampened consumers’ desire to travel. The impact was particularly pronounced in arrivals from North Asia and South and Southeast Asia, while in Taiwan, other than the human swine flu, the cross-strait direct links continued to affect arrivals.

For mainland China, both individual and group tour visitors decreased during the month, leading to a 9.6% drop in overall arrivals. This is attributed to the impact of human swine flu, compounded by the promulgation of the travel agency ordinance .
Visitor arrivals from long-haul regions fell 9.5% during the month, as the demand for long-distance travel remained weak, mainly due to the poor economy and consumer sentiment.

About 56.7% visitors to Hong Kong in May stayed in the city for at least one night, or 1.7 percentage points lower than in the same month last year. The remaining 43.3% same-day, in-town visitors either returned home or left for another destination on the same day they arrived. 

Hotel occupancy across all categories of hotels in May reached 64%, 17 percentage points lower than in May 2008. The average achieved hotel room rate across all hotel categories was US$124.74 or 14.6% lower than in May 2008.