Ocean Park visitors drop 15pc as strong Hong Kong dollar prompts mainlanders to holiday in Japan and Singapore instead

The number of visitors to Ocean Park has dropped about 15 per cent so far this summer holiday amid concerns that an increasing number of mainlanders are opting for other Asian destinations.

"Up to now - the summer holiday hasn't ended yet - the total number of visitors decreased about 15 per cent [compared with last year]," the park's sales and marketing executive director, Vivian Lee Ling-fung, said yesterday.

While noting that fewer mainlanders were touring the amusement park, she said the decline was mainly caused by the strong Hong Kong dollar, which had prompted holidaymakers from across the border to visit cheaper regional competitors, such as Japan and Singapore.

Lee's comments came after the city's commerce minister, Greg So Kam-leung, blamed hostility against mainlanders for a 9.8 per cent year-on-year fall in the number of visitors from across the border last month.

That figure exceeded the 8.4 per cent decline in overall arrivals; overseas visitors posted a 3 per cent drop from July last year.

So revealed the data for July last week; detailed figures will be out at the end of the month.