Tourist arrivals take sharpest plunge in November since protests began in Hong Kong

Only 2.65 million people visited city in the month, a decline of 56 per cent from same period last year

The slump is closest to the period of Sars outbreak in 2003, when arrivals fell more than 60 per cent

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Hong Kong’s tourism industry has been hit hard by anti-government protests. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 6:14pm, 31 Dec 2019Updated: 7:09pm, 1 Jan 2020

Tourist arrivals in Hong Kong took the sharpest plunge amid anti-government protests in November at 56 per cent year on year, closest to the slump when the city was hit by an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) in 2003.

Only 2.65 million people visited Hong Kong in the month, or 88,000 daily, according to latest figures released by the Hong Kong Tourism Board.

When Sars hit the city 16 years ago, tourist arrivals in the months of April and May that year fell more than 60 per cent from the same period the previous year.

Tourist arrivals were especially worse during November 11 to 20, when protesters were engaged in violent clashes with police on the campuses of Chinese University (CUHK) and Polytechnic University (PolyU). Only 67,000 tourists arrived a day on average during this period.

The worst days for tourist arrivals in November were when clashes broke out between radical protesters and police at Chinese University and Polytechnic University in Hong Kong. Photo: Sam Tsang

The CUHK campus in Sha Tin was occupied by radical protesters for five days last month, whereas PolyU was the scene of ugly clashes for 13 days.