Hong Kong attracts over 40 mln visitors in single year for 1st time

Hong Kong's tourism celebrated a new milestone on Wednesday as the city welcomed its first 40-millionth visitor for a single year.

According to the Tourism Board, the 40-millionth visitor was an American tourist Nancy Ryan from Chicago. She, together with three family members, arrived at the Hong Kong International Airport Tuesday night, making her first visit to the city.

It was the first time that Hong Kong had received over 40 million visitors in a single year.The Tourism Board also announced on Wednesday that Hong Kong's tourism saw a monthly record of 3,552,733 visitors in November, up 16.4 percent year-on-year.

In the first 11 months of the year, the city saw 37,770,230 visitor arrivals, up 16.3 percent on the same period last year, and surpassing the yearly total for 2010.

The report said visitors from the Chinese mainland surged 24.8 percent year-on-year to surpass 2.3 million in November. Cumulatively, mainland arrivals grew 23.8 percent to an historic high of more than 25 million, surpassing the 12-month total for 2010.

Among the short-haul market regions, North Asia achieved the best performance in November, with arrivals rising 6.9 percent to more than 200,000. Southeast Asia also saw moderate growth, with total arrivals rising 7.9 percent year-on-year to nearly 300,000.

For long-haul regions, arrivals grew 1.4 percent to more than 450,000 last month. The Americas performed the best, with 170,000 arrivals or a 6.9 percent increase.

Overnight arrivals to Hong Kong reached 1.87 million or 52.9 percent of all arrivals, a 13.1 percent increase year-on-year. Same-day arrivals grew 20.3 percent to exceed 1.67 million.

In the first 11 months of 2011, overnight arrivals increased 11. 1 percent to 20.12 million, accounting for 53.3 percent of all arrivals. Same-day arrivals increased 22.7 percent to 17.64 million. 

Source - xinhuanet