HONG KONG - The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) yesterday released the final visitor arrivals for 2008, which reached over 29,506,600, an increase of 4.7 percent on the 28.17 million arrivals welcomed in 2007.
Leading the growth among various market regions was Mainland China from where arrivals reached over 16,862,00, nine percent more than in 2007 and 57 percent of the 2008 total. In contrast to the Mainland, non-Mainland arrivals registered a marginal drop of 0.3 percent to 12,644,613, with the decrease more prominent in the long-haul regions.