More visitors arrived last month than in July last year - the first monthly gain this year, the Hong Kong Tourist Association said yesterday.
A total of 832,664 visitors arrived in Hong Kong last month, 86,000 more than in June and 26.5 per cent more than July last year, the month the tourist slump began, the association revealed.
But July's overall arrivals from South and Southeast Asian countries fell 16.6 per cent compared to the previous July, with Indonesian tourist numbers down 63.6 per cent and those from Thailand down 30.5 per cent.
The association said it was encouraged by the 11.7 per cent rise in visitors from Japan, while the biggest rise was from the mainland with arrivals up 150.8 per cent thanks to an increase in the tour group quota which came in effect on July 1.
Figures for the first seven months of the year are well down on last year, with the 5.4 million visitors representing a 15.9 per cent drop on the same period in 1997.
Although tourism officials expect arrivals for the remaining months to surpass last year's corresponding months, the total for 1998 is expected to be lower than that of 1997.
