July visitor arrivals in Hong Kong up 32%

Individual Visit Scheme measures in Shenzhen helped make Chinese top visitors with total of 2mln.

Hong Kong saw a 31.9% year-on-year rise in visitors in July, reaching its highest monthly level of 3.14 million, the Tourism Board says in a government report.

For the first seven months of the year, total arrivals stood at 19.99 million, up 24.4% on the same period last year. Long-haul arrivals rose 10.6% while the short-haul market grew 22.3%.

The Mainland led the growth with arrivals from there up 40% on the same period last year, to more than 2 million visitors. The significant growth was attributed to the implementation of Individual Visit Scheme measures in Shenzhen.

As the economy improved and flight capacity increased, South and Southeast Asia arrivals grew 40%, while those from Taiwan rose 10.4%.

Arrivals from Russia, the Middle East and India rose 86%, 47.5% and 44.9%.

About 1.82 million visitors stayed overnight in July, up 35.7% on the same month last year.