According to a Tourism Board estimate, more than 21 million visitors and transit passengers arrived in Hong Kong last year, an increase of 32 per cent year on year. The main driving force was the mainland, which accounted for more than 11 million of the total. Of these, 3.78 million, or 34 per cent, arrived under the recently introduced Individual Visit Scheme.

This strong performance maintained Hong Kong's position as the 14th destination in overall rankings of world tourism arrivals by the World Tourism Organisation and its status as Asia's most popular single tourist destination.

Tourism Board executive director Clara Chong said the industry's positive growth was now becoming clear. 'We are comparing performances against previous records and still surpassing them. With a few exceptions that the board is addressing, we are no longer talking about recovery but about strong organic growth.'

Ms Chong said that with a host of new hotels under development to cope with increasing demand - among them the largest Four Seasons Hotel in the world, due to open mid-year, the Mandarin Oriental's new boutique hotel and the confirmed return of the Regent Hotel - Hong Kong was well- positioned to welcome business and leisure tourists well into the future.

With Hong Kong Disneyland due to open in September, other attractions also set to open include the 64-hectare Hong Kong Wetland Park, providing an integrated, themed education and recreation venue and a world-class eco-tourism facility.

This will be followed by the launch of the Tung Chung Cable Car to Po Lin Monastery and the Giant Buddha.

Hong Kong Hotels Association chairman Mark Lettenbichler said the good news was the tourism industry was getting into much better shape to meet these challenges.

'We are seeing the resumption of in-house training programmes and an increase in the number of places available in tourism programmes offered by our universities and hospitality training institutions,' he said.

One factor that concerns Mr Lettenbichler is the inability to retain graduate hotel trainee managers.

Up to 15 per cent of graduate trainees leave the hotel industry in their first two years.

'As an industry we need to do more to address this problem and provide an environment where people will develop their careers,' he said.

'Our experience in recruiting talent for our industry during the past year has been less than satisfactory, with vacancies remaining unfilled for long periods due to the lack of more suitable candidates. We need better talent to continue to raise our service standards.'

While there are many people in the job market looking for opportunities, they do not always meet the requirements of the hotel industry.

Many lack the attitude, personal qualities and skills, the ability to communicate in English and Putonghua, or the commitment to work as responsible employees.

The combined programmes of the Polytechnic University (PolyU), Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and City University produce about 1,000 graduates each year.

A government study on manpower requirements for tourism-related industries shows the need for manpower increasing from 339,300 in 1999 to 392,100 by the end of this year, a rise of more than 50,000 jobs in six years.

CUHK's School of Hotel and Tourism Management offers students an opportunity to learn how to apply business theories to real-life situations.

With the aim of becoming the regional centre of excellence for hospitality education in Asia, the school recognises that support from the industry is vital to the success of the school and beneficial to its students.

The curriculum of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management emphasises theory and practice.

As Asia's leading university-level provider of tourism and hospitality education, the PolyU's Hotel and Tourism Management (HTM) programmes have been specifically designed towards preparing students for a career in the hotel, catering and tourism sectors.

PolyU HTM lecturer Ada Lo said because the tourism and hospitality industry was of such importance to the economy of Hong Kong and the mainland, it needed to attract the best personnel.

As well as professional hospitality skills, those entering the profession must become proficient in languages, with an increasing emphasis on learning Putonghua.

As an added-value component of the programmes, the HTM arranges international student-exchange agreements with hotel and tourism schools worldwide.

The school has co-operative-educational partnership agreements with 15 multinational hospitality and tourism corporations, designed to strengthen ties with the industry.