The Hindu Business Line : Hong Kong records 14 pc rise in Indian tourist arrivals

INDIAN visitors made a significant contribution to Hong Kong's growth in tourist arrivals for the month of April, which saw an increase of 11.9 per cent or 1.93 million arrivals.

Indian arrivals for the month grew by 14.2 per cent at 29,029 over the corresponding period in 2004. The cumulative total of Indian visitors to Hong Kong for the period between January and April this year stood at 84,074.The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) said the increase takes the cumulative total for the first four months of 2005 to 7.4 million, 11.1 per cent higher than the corresponding period in the previous year.

All major regional markets showed growth over April 2004 arrivals, with double-digit increases seen from the Americas (1,44,912; 17.5 per cent), Europe, Africa and the West Asia (1,86,577; 30.9 per cent), Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific (52,753; 30.8 per cent) and South and Southeast Asia (2,15,337; 19.1 per cent).

The Executive Director of HKTB, Ms Clara Chong, noted that the continued strong demand for travel from most regional and long-haul markets, is keeping Hong Kong well on track to meet its forecast arrivals growth of 7.3 per cent for the year.

"The continued robust performance from markets such as Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Korea and Australia, as well as the US and the UK, is especially noteworthy in what is traditionally a lower season for travel to Hong Kong," she said.

Hotel occupancy across all categories of hotels and tourist guest houses in April was identical to the 2004 figure, at 86 per cent. The highest tariff hotels averaged 85 per cent while those in the second and third tiers recorded 85 per cent and 88 per cent respectively.

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