Is Hong Kong really overwhelmed by tourists? These figures suggest otherwise
Just 3.5 per cent of people in Hong Kong each day are tourists, according to a formula devised by FiveThirtyEight.com's Nate Silver – but it’s one in ten in Macau
Hongkongers often bemoan the tourist hordes from the mainland, accusing them of clogging the city’s streets with their wheeled suitcases and shopping bags – but new analysis suggests the city may not be as overwhelmed by visitors as it sometimes appears.
Based on that formula – which compares tourist arrivals to population – the Post’s calculations found that an average of 3.5 per cent of people in the city are tourists. The figures are based on World Bank statistics on overall tourist arrivals and the four-day average length of visit the Hong Kong Tourism Board cites.
READ MORE: Tourism down 8.4 per cent in July as mainland visitors stay away from Hong Kong
In Macau, however, 11.9 per cent of the population on any given day is from out of town. The former Portuguese enclave would rank third in FiveThirtyEight’s list, behind only European microstates Andorra and the Vatican City, which tops the list but has just 869 residents.
