Hong Kong welcomes 36 million tourists in first 3 quarters, up 12% year on year

Hong Kong received 36 million visitors in the first three quarters of this year, a 12 per cent increase year on year, with strong growth in tourists coming from Japan, Taiwan and Australia.

The provisional figures announced by the Hong Kong Tourism Board on Wednesday showed that nearly 3.3 million tourists visited the city last month, pushing the cumulative count for this year to 36 million, up 12 per cent compared with the same period in 2024.

About 28 million visitors were from mainland China, an 11 per cent increase year on year, while the board said that non-mainland tourists experienced even bigger growth.

“About 8.5 million visitors came from non-mainland markets, a 16 per cent increase year on year, with Taiwan, Japan and Australia showing particularly strong growth,” it said.

According to a breakdown of figures, overseas long-haul visitors totalled 2.4 million from January to September, marking the greatest growth of 18 per cent compared with the same period last year.

Coming second, overseas short-haul visitors rose by 17 per cent from the same period in 2024, reaching 4.7 million this year.