Hong Kong extradition bill protests begin to bite as city records drop in short-haul travellers

Hong Kong Tourism Board reports 3.3 per cent decline in short-haul arrivals at start of July, and slowest weekly growth since middle of June

But overall outlook remains positive, with city expected to welcome record 65.1 million travellers over course of year

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Tourists take pose for photos at the Avenue of Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 4:12pm, 19 Jul 2019Updated: 3:26pm, 23 Jul 2019

Short-haul visitor numbers to Hong Kong dropped sharply this month as the city began to feel the impact of the ongoing protests against the extradition bill.

Latest figures showed visits by tourists from Asia, excluding those from mainland China, dropped 3.3 per cent between July 1 and July 5, year on year.

While the Hong Kong Tourism Board said tourists arrivals overall grew 4.2 per cent for the same period, that represented the lowest weekly growth since the middle of June.

On Friday, Anthony Lau Chun-hon, the board’s outgoing chief executive, said June’s tourist arrivals, which jumped 8.5 per cent from the same period last year, still reflected the impact of the US-China trade war.

Hundreds of thousands of people have taken part in a series of marches in Hong Kong against the controversial extradition bill, blocking roads and disrupting business in the process. Photo: Dickson Lee

“There were fewer visitors coming from the mainland China, Taiwan and South Korea since June, which might be because of fast information flow [on the protests],” he said. “The forward booking of air flights and hotels and other tours in Hong Kong will be challenging in the next couple of months.”