HK's visitor arrivals up 22% last month, topping 4mn

The Tourism Board says visitor arrivals last month exceeded 4.03 million, marking a 22% hike year-on-year.

Among them, mainland visitors logged the highest growth, surging by nearly 30% year-on-year to reach 3.17 million arrivals.

Long-haul visitors from non-mainland regions also increased 20%.

The Tourism Board says the marked growth was driven by the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, with the Tai Hang fire dragon parade also a factor, and a lower base figure for comparison from last year.

However, due to lingering factors such as flight capacity constraints and fuel surcharges, non-mainland short-haul arrivals dropped by 10%.

For the first three quarters of this year, Hong Kong has already recorded 40 million visitor arrivals, representing a 12% increase.

The board expects more tourists on the way with the lineup of mega-events toward the end of the year.