HKTB: Mainland China remains largest visitor source market for HK

Hong Kong has seen over 34 million tourists visiting the city over the past year, with mainland China remaining the largest visitor source market, according to Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) executive director Dane Cheng.

Speaking on a Commercial Radio programme 政經星期六 on Saturday (13 January), Cheng said that while the year-round arrivals figure in Hong Kong recovered to 55% of pre-COVID level, including the four million visitors who visited the city in December last year, which alone represents a 65% recovery.

On a full-year basis, the mainland remained the largest visitor source market for Hong Kong, with satisfactory visitor arrivals during Labour Day Golden Week, the summer holidays, and National Day Golden Week, according to an official statement from HKTB.

Cheng also said that HKTB is still estimating the number of inbound tourists for the upcoming year. He said it would be unrealistic to compare the figures with the peak of 65 million tourists in 2018 when approximately 20,000 to 30,000 grey group traders arrived in Hong Kong daily at the peak, which may leave a negative impression on other travellers. More balanced figures should be pursued to avoid over-tourism in cities such as Venice, Italy, Cheng said.

Speaking of mainland tourists choosing not to stay overnight due to the high hotel prices, Cheng said the issue was not solely attributed to hotel room rates. He explained that while it had been less than a year since Hong Kong reopened its border, frontline hotel employees were still recovering from the impact of the pandemic. He believed the situation would improve gradually. 

Cheng added that overnight visitors accounted for half the travellers, which was a higher proportion than before the pandemic. The average length of stay was 3.6 nights, which was also longer than that before the pandemic. Overnight visitor satisfaction was 8.7 points out of 10, exceeding the pre-pandemic level as well, according to a survey by the HKTB. 

Cheng highlighted that Hong Kong's aviation capacity was steadily on the rise, and the recovery of non-mainland tourists had been relatively satisfactory. He said moving forward, HKTB will not solely focus on the number of passengers but also prioritise attracting high-quality tourists. At the same time, they will continue to provide good hospitality to visitors with lower spending capacity.

On the other hand, the Southeast Asian markets recovered the most quickly. Visitor arrivals from the Philippines and Thailand in December last year exceeded the pre-epidemic level, reaching 116% and 106% of the pre-epidemic level respectively. By travel purpose, the number of MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing and Exhibitions) travellers recovered to about 70% of that before the pandemic, surpassing the leisure segment and making it the fastest-recovering segment.

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