Total visitor arrivals to Hong Kong exceeded 2.17 million in April 2007, a year-on-year increase of 2.3%, the Hong Kong Tourism Board announced.

The increase took the cumulative total for January to April 2007 to more than 8.79 million, 5.3% higher than in the first four months of 2006.

Almost all regional markets showed growth over April 2006 arrivals, with double-digit increases seen from Europe, Africa and the Middle East (221,551, 12.6%), while the Americas (166,246, 8.3%), and Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific (65,564, 7.8%) also recorded robust performance. As for the short-haul markets, Taiwan (191,523, 5.4%); South & Southeast Asia (242,192, 3.2%); and North Asia (152,301, 4.4%) all performed encouragingly.

Arrivals from Mainland China fell slightly by 1.8% to 1,089,240 in April. Nevertheless, overall visitor numbers from this market in the first four months of 2007 remained ahead of last year, increasing by 3.5% to more than 4.86 million. Of the visitors from the Mainland, who represented 50.0% of the April total, 530,568 travelled under the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS). This was 48.7% of the Mainland arrivals for the month, and 11.3% more than in April 2006.

Commenting on the Mainland market performance, HKTB Chairman The Hon James Tien emphasized that it would be important to look at the overall arrival trends rather than focusing on the monthly fluctuations.

"Despite the slight drop in April, our provisional figures show that there was encouraging growth of arrivals from Mainland China in May so far," Tien said. "As the year progresses, we’ll continue to work very hard to maintain steady growth of the Mainland market. As well as encouraging repeat visits by Mainland travellers, we’ll continue to develop the high-potential secondary cities. We’ll also co-operate with the travel trade to ensure that visitors can enjoy a quality and memorable experience in Hong Kong."

In April 2007, some 1.28 million arrivals (59.0% of the total) stayed in the city for at least one night, while the remaining 892,000 (41.0%) were classified as same-day in-town visitors. In January-April 2007, over 5.33 million (60.7%) visitors stayed overnight, with some 3.45 million (39.3%) leaving on the day of arrival.

Hotel occupancy across all categories of hotels in April 2007 was 82%, which is four percentage points lower than in April 2006. The geographic location with the highest occupancy in April was Yau Ma Tei/Mong Kok, where hotels recorded a rate of 87%. The average achieved hotel room rate across all hotel categories was HK$1,410, 11.5% higher than in April 2006. The average hotel occupancy for January-April 2007 is 84%, three percentage points lower than in 2006. The average achieved hotel room rate is HK$1,232, 13.4% higher than in the same period of 2006.