More Tourists Visit HK in December 2000 Over December 1999Visitor arrival in Hong Kong during December 2000 grew by 18.5 percent compared with the same month in 1999, giving a flourishing finale to an already strong year of resurgence for Hong Kong's tourism industry, the Hong Kong Tourist Association said in a news release Tuesday.The strong December performance took total arrivals for the year 2000 to a new record of just under 13.06 million, comfortably beating the previous best total of 12.97 million recorded in 1996, said Chow Liang Shuk-yee, Chairman of the Hong Kong Tourist Association. An especially encouraging feature of the December figures is that strong growth was recorded across the board, with the higher- yield long-haul markets showing double-digit increases as well as the short-haul markets, the association said. Meanwhile, hotel occupancy averaged 86 percent in December and 83 percent for 2000 as a whole, compared with 79 percent in 1999. |
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