The Travel Industry Council said on Saturday that the 1.4 million visitors to Hong Kong during the eight-day Lunar New Year Golden Week is still satisfactory.
Fanny Yeung Shuk-fan, executive director of the Travel Industry Council, told a radio program this morning that during this year’s LNY golden week holiday, approximately 1.4 million visitors traveled to Hong Kong, with 1.2 million of them coming from mainland China, accounting for 85 percent of all inbound tourists.
While the number of visitors was about 30,000 fewer than last year and slightly below expectations, Yeung said she was still satisfied with the overall figures.
Among the group tour visitors, 83 percent were overnight tourists, staying in Hong Kong for an average of two to three nights, more than the average of one to two nights last year. Additionally, the hotel occupancy rate reached around 90 percent.
Commenting on outbound travel, Yeung said air ticket bookings for this year’s Lunar New Year holiday increased by 70 percent compared to last year, with Japan being the most popular destination, followed by Taiwan.
However, despite the surge in bookings, the number of outbound tour groups dropped from over 1,700 last year to around 1,400 this year.
She said one reason for this decline is that the Christmas and Lunar New Year holidays were relatively close together this season, leading many Hong Kong residents to travel abroad during Christmas instead.
