HONG KONG. Total visitor numbers rose in February to almost 1.5 million, a +3.3% increase on the same month last year.
Among leading long-haul markets, Europe, Africa and the Middle East showed the sharpest increase, up +17%; the US improved by +13.0% and Australia increased by + 12.0%.
Many short-haul markets however were down on 2003, affected to a great extent by fears over Bird Flu; notably Japan was down by -29.9%, Taiwan by -24.7% and South Korea by -7.7%. These are key spending nationalities at Hong Kong International Airport.
Only mainland China showed any great increase on February 2003, up by +15.6% – a result of the Chinese New Year falling in February this year (in 2003 it fell in January).
News of the latest suspected SARS cases in mainland China is likely to further dampen recovery among intra-Asian traffic in particular.
The effect of the movable Chinese New Year – when the Chinese enjoy a 15-day holiday, but many long-haul travellers prefer to stay away from the region – is to distort comparisons with previous years. For this reason it is helpful to combine the months of January and February in order to appreciate trends.
On this basis, virtually all markets were down on 2003. Japan showed the greatest decline, down by -38.1%; Taiwan was down -19.7%, South Korea -17.1% and the US -6.5%. India, up by +11.7%, was the only Asian market to show an increase – apart from the burgeoning mainland Chinese market. This showed real growth as nearly two million visitors surged into Hong Kong over the two-month period, up +32.5% on last year.
Announcing the visitor figures this month, Hong Kong Tourism Board director Clara Chong said that a much clearer picture of the tourism revival campaign is now emerging. “Generally the picture is an encouraging one,” she said. “Mainland growth remains strong and long-haul traffic is clearly on a positive comeback trend.
“However we still face challenges in restoring some of the other Asian markets to pre-SARS levels, especially Japan. We will be launching a special booster campaign in Japan in the coming weeks, and will continue our strenuous promotional efforts in all the other key markets worldwide.”
MORE STORIES ON HONG KONG VISITOR NUMBERS
Hong Kong traffic nears 2002 level – 20/04/04
Chinese travel fuels Hong Kong retail boom – 07/04/04
Hong Kong numbers slip as Asian traffic is slow to recover – 15/03/04
