Hong Kong tourist arrivals likely to fall short of 46 million target, long-haul focus next year

Hong Kong’s tourist arrivals this year are likely to fall “marginally” short of the forecast of 46 million amid challenges of a strong currency and slow recovery of flight capacity, the leader of the city’s tourism board has said, with the priority for next year focused on bringing back long-haul travellers.

Dane Cheng Ting-yat, executive director of the Tourism Board, revealed on Friday that tourist arrivals to the city had jumped 37 per cent in the first 10 months of this year to 36.7 million compared to the same period last year, which meant the city would have to chalk up 10 million arrivals in November and December to meet its target.

The number of non-mainland Chinese visitors, who accounted for about 23 per cent of the overall figure, increased 54 per cent year-on-year to 8.3 million over the 10-month period.

Visitors from mainland China grew 33 per cent year-on-year to 28.4 million during that same period.

Cheng conceded that spending of mainland visitors to Hong Kong had contracted with the economic slowdown across the border.

“We are likely to have a combined total of 8 million tourist arrivals in the remaining two months of this year, which means we are likely to marginally miss the full-year target,” he said.