The Hong Kong Tourism Board announced that visitor arrivals to Hong Kong reached an all-time high in 2011 at 41,921,310, representing an increase of 16.4% year-on-year.

Below are the full-year visitor arrivals for various market regions:

• Mainland China: 28,100,129 (+23.9%)
• North Asia: 2,304,683 (+4.4%)
• South and Southeast Asia: 3,751,149 (+7.1%)
• Taiwan: 2,148,733 (-0.7%)
• The Americas: 1,821,096 (+4.1%)
• Europe, Africa and the Middle East: 2,194,319 (+0.9%)
• Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific: 757,871 (-1.4%)

Overnight Visitors

In 2011, overnight visitor arrivals went up by 11.1% year-on-year to 22.32 million or 53.2% of total visitor arrivals to Hong Kong.

Among all markets, Mainland China registered the most prominent growth in overnight arrivals at 16.5%, while Taiwan also recorded a 7.5-% increase.

Visitor Spending

According to the latest projection, total expenditure associated to inbound tourism for 2011 is expected to exceed HK$253 billion, 20.5% more than in 2010.

Meanwhile, per capita spending is expected to rise for both overnight visitors and same-day visitors, respectively by 9.0% to HK$7,333 and by 4.0% to HK$1,920.