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Sandy Li

Tourism chiefs have been accused of 'double counting' to falsely inflate the number of visitors coming to Hong Kong.

The practice is boosting the figure by more than 35 per cent, according to an academic and a leading tourism figure.

Their claim is supported by the Travel Industry Council and the Federation of Hong Kong Hotel Owners.

An associate professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University's School of Hotel and Tourism Management, John Ap, said the Tourism Board's monthly figures for arrivals were misleading.

Many Taiwanese visitors arrived in Hong Kong and went to the mainland on the same day in the absence of direct flights, he said.

But they were being counted a second time when they returned to Hong Kong on their way home.

'The numbers will be significantly lower if the board takes out same-day visitors from the statistics,' Professor Ap said.

The board says that between January and September, 11.74 million visitors arrived in Hong Kong. But 35.4 per cent - 4.15 million - proceeded to other destinations on the same day. A total of 7.59 million stayed overnight and could thereby be classified as tourists.

Tourism Board statistics also show that between January and September, more than 76 per cent of the 1.81 million Taiwanese and 29.9 per cent of the 4.7 million mainland visitors used Hong Kong as a transit point.

Professor Ap said Walt Disney expressed concern about 'double counting' when it made its forecasts of visitors to its park at Penny's Bay on Lantau Island.

Tourism Board statistics use the term 'visitor arrivals', but they are silent on actual tourist arrivals. A tourism industry leader, who requested anonymity, said: 'The board's failure to make a distinction between visitor and tourist arrivals is questionable. Of course, its use of visitor arrivals, not actual tourist arrivals, will boost the numbers. But it's unfortunate the public is not being told how to interpret the statistics.'

Companies could make serious mistakes in their revenue projections if they were based on the board's figures.

The executive director of the Federation of Hong Kong Hotel Owners, Michael Li Hon-shing, said the group had been using its own data, which excluded same-day visitors.

A Walt Disney spokesman said the company had noted the differences between visitor and tourist arrivals. It would not revise its forecast of 5.6 million annual visitors to its park despite the discrepancy.

A Tourism Board spokesman said its statistics complied with World Tourism Organisation standards.

'Those who actually pass through Hong Kong Immigration are classified as visitors. Transit passengers are not included in the arrival figures, nor are visiting servicemen and air crew,' he said. 'It is unfair to say they're not real visitors if they don't stay overnight because they're also shopping and spending money here.' People such as hotel operators knew how to analyse the figures, he said.

Travel Industry Council executive director Joseph Tung Yao-chung said tour operators' business had dropped about 10 per cent during last month's 'Golden Week' national holiday. This compared with the Tourism Board's figures which showed a surge in the number of mainland arrivals during the period.



Tourism figures inflated by 'double counting'