20% tourist spike in May as more than 4 million visit Hong Kong

Five new markets record year-on-year growth of 21 per cent on average in May

Hong Kong welcomed over 4 million visitors in May, a 20 per cent year-on-year increase, with an industry leader urging authorities to relax entry rules for Vietnamese and Indian tourists to attract more people from new markets.

More than 3.1 million of last month’s visitors were from mainland China, a 19 per cent rise from last year, according to provisional figures released by the Tourism Board on Monday.

The number of non-mainland tourists also increased by 24 per cent from May last year to 955,345. Of these, 56.2 per cent were short-haul visitors.

Five new markets – Gulf Cooperation Council countries, India, Vietnam, Russia and the Netherlands – averaged 21 per cent year-on-year growth, to 74,746 arrivals, in May.