Hong Kong visitor numbers continue to rise, with 5 million tourists in March

Figures from the Hong Kong Tourism Board show three quarters of the visitors last month were from mainland China

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The city received 4.99 million visitors in March. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 9:41pm, 30 Apr 2018Updated: 10:11pm, 30 Apr 2018

Almost 9 per cent more travellers visited Hong Kong this March compared with the same period a year ago, and more of them stayed overnight, underlining further improvements in the city’s tourism sector.

The city received 4.99 million visitors in March, up 8.9 per cent, and three quarters of them – 3.66 million – were from mainland China, according to figures released by the city’s Tourism Board on Monday.

The number of mainland visitors jumped 10.1 per cent when compared with March last year.

Mainland tourists shopping in Mong Kok. Photo: Felix Wong

Some 2.3 million of the total arrivals stayed overnight in Hong Kong, up 6.5 per cent from March 2017. Among them, about 1.4 million were mainland visitors.

The figures suggested more mainland tourists returned to the city as the legacy of anti-mainland sentiments from about three years ago has died down. At that time, the number of mainland visitors was so large that many Hongkongers fought with them for daily necessities such as baby milk formula and infant diapers.

Legislator Yiu Si-wing, who represents the tourism sector, while remaining optimistic about the outlook of the sector, noted that only 46 per cent of the visitors chose to spend a night or more in the city.