Hong Kong could hit post-Covid high of 5 million tourists in August: lawmaker Hong Kong’s visitor numbers in August may have surpassed 5 million, a post-pandemic record, the tourism sector lawmaker has said. Legislative Council member Perry Yiu Pak-leung said on Sunday that mega-events and a diversified tourism model were likely to have bolstered the boom, but visitor numbers had yet to return to pre-Covid levels because of fierce competition and a slowdown in global business travel. “Preliminary data for August shows it was definitely the highest single month for incoming tourist numbers since the pandemic,” Yiu said in a television interview, noting that no other month so far had topped January’s 4.74 million people. “From what I’ve seen, August has already surpassed that number and may actually even break 5 million – so this is a new single-month high.” The lawmaker highlighted that around 9.6 million people had visited over the two-month summer period in July and August, representing a 14 to 15 per cent increase over the same period last year. He attributed the growth to the efforts of the Tourism Commission, the Hong Kong Tourism Board and the travel industry to promote the city and develop new products. He said the new Kai Tak Sports Park, which he called a “brilliant landmark for mega-events,” had also successful attracted many visitors. Yiu said international concerts and sporting events held at the venue had been a major draw, especially for tourists from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and mainland China, with around half of such audiences being foreign visitors. But the numbers have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, especially those of 2018 and 2019, when Hong Kong saw historic highs in visitor numbers. In July and August 2018, for example, visitor numbers reached 11.3 million. The number for July the following year also exceeded 5 million before anti-government protests caused a sharp drop in August. Yiu said overall visitor numbers remained at about 70 per cent of pre-pandemic levels because of several factors beyond the slow return of flight capacity, including fierce market competition and a global slowdown in business travel. He said the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) sector had only recovered to about 76 per cent of 2018 levels, largely because companies were still controlling costs after the pandemic. The lawmaker expressed optimism for the final quarter of the year, saying he expected the full-year visitor count to exceed 50 million, surpassing government estimates of 48 million. He said Hong Kong’s role as a co-host of the National Games in November was a unique opportunity to promote “sports tourism” and advocated for continued efforts to boost the nighttime economy. Yiu proposed using the influx of visitors to Kai Tak Sports Park to revitalise nearby areas such as Kowloon City before and after events. https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3323821/hong-kong-could-hit-post-covid-high-5-million-tourists-august-lawmaker (ICE HONG KONG)

Fonte notizia: South China Morning Post