TOURIST arrivals in the first four months of this year saw a healthy increase of 11.3 per cent, thanks to the inclusion for the first time of visitors from China.
A total of 2.73 million tourists came to Hongkong during the period, according to the Hongkong Tourist Association (HKTA).
For April, visitor arrivals totalled 777,497, a rise of 9.6 per cent over the same period last year, boosted by the mainland figures.
Excluding mainland arrivals, tourist numbers in Hongkong increased by just 1.2 per cent to 636,186 for April, and by 4.5 per cent to a total of 2.2 million for the first four months.
Between January and April, all major markets except Japan registered increases in visitor arrivals.
Taiwanese again formed the largest group, with 568,715 arrivals, up 15.9 per cent on the same period last year.
There were 501,205 visitors from China, which formed the second largest group and accounted for 18.3 per cent of total arrivals. For April, there were 141,311 visitors from China.
