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Denise Tsang

Windfall poised to continue during next month's Golden Week holiday

Hong Kong's average hotel occupancy rate was 86 per cent  in the first eight months of this year - the highest level since 1996.

The rate is 29 per cent  more than in the same period last year and 4 per cent  more than in 2002.

And the city's hotels are poised to cash in on next month's Golden Week holiday, with more than 90 per cent  occupancy expected.

Hundreds of thousands of mainland tourists are expected to visit the city during the week-long holiday that begins next Friday.

This would boost demand  and inflate room rates by an average of 10 per cent,  the Hong Kong Hotels Association's executive director, James Lu Shien-kwai,  said yesterday.

The promising outlook comes after a stronger and faster than anticipated recovery in the sector after the Sars outbreak last year.

Association chairman Mark Lettenbichler,  also head of the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Central, said: 'We have seen the industry bounce back quicker  than expected.'

The recovery would be sustainable in the next two years as a number of international trade events and conferences would be held in Hong Kong, he added.

These include the annual congress of the American Society of Travel Agents next week, the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation next year and the ITU Telecom World conference in 2006.

'The ITU conference, which will be held in Hong Kong for the first time, will bring in at least 25,000 visitors,' Mr Lettenbichler said.

Government figures show visitor arrivals soared to 1.9 million  in July - the highest figure  recorded in a single month - up 54 per cent   on the same period last year and 45.4 per cent  up on 2002.

The driving force behind the recovery is the mainland's  individual travel scheme, which saw  2.6 million visitors  come to Hong Kong in the first year of its introduction.

The scheme, which now applies to 32  cities, is expected to bring in 12 million visitors  this year, the hotel association says. Mainland travellers are Hong Kong's largest group of inbound tourists.

But Mr Lu said the individual travel scheme mainly benefited low-budget accommodation.

'Most  choose to stay at three-star hotels and guesthouses, but we see a trend that they are moving to four-star hotels,' he said.

'And now they account for about 10 per cent  of guests in five-star hotels.'

Mr Lettenbichler  said he was concerned  about labour shortages in the hospitality industry.

He said an estimated 21,000 jobs  would become  available in the next three years, compared to Hong Kong's annual output of about 4,000  hospitality service graduates.

'We will confront the government over the labour problem soon,' Mr Lettenbichler said. 'We may need to import skilled labour.'

Asked if labour shortages would lead to pay rises, Mr Lu said wages  depended on employees' skills.



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Hotels enjoy 86pc occupancy rates