Visitor numbers up 18pc in first two months of year

Hong Kong saw nearly 10 million visitor arrivals in the first two months of the year, up 18 percent from a year ago. The Tourism Board announced on Tuesday that the number of mainland travellers rose by 22 percent, to nearly 7.9 million during the period. In February alone, which coincided with the Lunar New Year, mainland arrivals surged by more than 50 percent to over 4.2 million. Visitor arrivals from outside the mainland also rose by eight percent to more than two million. "With notable results from long-haul markets, the number of visitors from Australia, France and Germany grew by 20 to 30 percent year on year," it said in a statement. The board went on to say there were fluctuations in visitor figures for the first two months of the year compared to the same period last year, in part due to different dates for the Lunar New Year holiday and Ramadan. Edited by Thomas McAlinden