The Hong Kong Tourism Board reports visitor arrivals in August 2007 reached almost 2.76 million, the highest single-month total on record.

In a press release, the HKTB says the achievement represents 16.9% growth over last August. Arrivals from Mainland China also increased by a substantial 23.5% to over 1.68 million, the best-ever monthly record for the Mainland.

All long- and short-haul market regions showed positive gain this August. On top of Mainland China, Europe, Africa & the Middle East and Australia, New Zealand & South Pacific also performed exceptionally well.

Among the individual source markets, both South Korea (+30.7%) and the Philippines (+28.5%), which have been identified by the HKTB as high-potential markets, as well as the Middle East (+28.7%) and Russia (+17.1%), which are considered emerging markets, continued their robust performance.

In August, there were more than 1.78 million overnight visitor arrivals (64.6% of the total), with the remainder of more than 976,000 (35.4%) classified as same-day in-town visitors.

The cumulative arrivals for January-August 2007 now stand at more than 18.24 million, an increase of 9.0% over the same period last year. Out of this total, more than 11.21 million or 61.5% stayed in the city for at least one night, while those who left on the same day of arrival exceeded 7.02 million (38.5%).

Overall visitor arrivals to Hong Kong numbered 2,758,337 in August, a year-on-year increase of 16.9%. Cumulative arrivals for January to August stood at 18,242,929, a growth of 9.0% compared with the same period in 2006.

Of the Mainland arrivals in August, 1,052,553 or 62.4% travelled under the Individual Visit Scheme, a year-on-year increase of 34.0%. This took the cumulative IVS arrivals in January-August 2007 to more than 5.70 million, which represents 56.1% of visitors from the Mainland and growth of 25.1%.

Arrivals from South & Southeast Asia in August numbered 217,893, a year-on-year increase of 8.5%. The Philippines was again the strongest individual market in the region, with growth of 28.5%, followed by Singapore (+14.5%) and Malaysia (+11.9%). The region’s January-August total stood at 1,762,774, an increase of 6.7%.

Some 64.6% of all visitors to Hong Kong in August stayed in the city for at least one night, 2.1 percentage points lower than for the same month last year. The remaining 35.4% same-day in-town visitors either returned home or left for another destination on the same day as arrival.

The average occupancy across all categories of hotels in August was 91%, two percentage points higher than in August 2006. The geographic locations with the highest occupancies in August were Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok, where hotels recorded rates of 95%. The average achieved hotel room rate across all hotel categories for the month was HK$1,043, 13.4% higher than in August 2006. The average occupancy across all categories of hotels for January-August 2007 was 85%, two percentage points lower than in the same period in 2006. The average achieved room rate across all hotel categories was HK$1,143, 12.7% higher than in the first eight months of 2006.

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