HONG KONG - Hong Kong visitor arrivals in 2010 reached a historic high of 36,030,331, 21.8 percent more than in 2009. The growth was led by a number of factors, including steady growth of the world’s economy, appreciation of most currencies against the Hong Kong dollar, as well as the expansion of the scope of the Individual Visit Scheme for Shenzhen residents by the Central government. Also setting a milestone was the total tourism expenditure associated to inbound tourism, which amounted to HK$212.6 billion on a provisional basis, 30.5 percent higher than the 2009 figure. Mainland China continued to be the primary driver of growth in arrivals to Hong Kong in 2010, with arrivals climbing up by 26.3 percent year-on-year to 22.68 million, and accounting for 63 percent of total arrivals. Such buoyant performance underlines Hong Kong’s popularity as a travel destination for Mainland travellers. Across the strait in Taiwan, yearly arrivals grew by 7.7 percent to over 2.16 million, despite continued expansion of cross-strait direct flights. Making use of the spare capacity of the Hong Kong-Taiwan flights, the Hong Kong Tourism Board collaborated with the travel trade to roll out competitively priced vacation packages and open up new visitor sources in cities other than Taipei. As a result, vacation arrivals from the island went up by 29 percent to 590,000, causing overall Taiwanese arrivals to increase. For North Asia, the strong appreciation of the Japanese Yen and the Korean Won during the year brought forth a 21.1%-rise in arrivals from the region. The performance of South Korea was especially outstanding, with double-digit growth recorded for every single month of 2010. For the full year, arrivals from the country soared by 44 percent to 890,000. In Japan, the travel trade launched a range of multi-destination travel itineraries featuring Hong Kong, Macau and the Pearl River Delta. Together with myriads of mega events and activities in Hong Kong, these attracted increased visits by Japanese travellers, causing arrivals to grow by 9.3 percent to 1.31 million. In South and Southeast Asia, the emerging market of India proved to be the best performer, with arrivals up by 44.8 percent to 530,000. The robust growth was mainly due to increased Hong Kong-India flight capacity, and the joint effort between the HKTB and the local travel trade to cultivate interest in visiting Hong Kong among Indian consumers. Other markets in the region, such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, all recorded double-digit growth compared to 2009. According to the latest projection, total tourism expenditure associated to inbound tourism for 2010 is expected to reach HK$212.6 billion, an upward leap of 30.5 percent compared to 2009. It is estimated that per capita spending among overnight visitors will increase by 16.2 percent from HK$5,770 to HK$6,705, while that of same-day, in-town visitors will rise to HK$1,884, as compared to HK$1,798 in 2009.