CHINA: Chinese Tourists Avoid Europe After Violent Attacks By Islamists

A string of violent attacks in ­western Europe scared ­Chinese tourists, a fast-growing segment of the travel industry.

The number of mainland tourists travelling to Europe was up 32 per cent to 4.78 million in 2015, with growth strongest among those heading to Germany and France. But that was before the terrorist attacks in Paris on November 13, when at least 130 people were killed and many more wounded.

Since then, Chinese interest in France, in particular, has been declining. France issued just 320,000 visas in China in the first six months of this year, a drop of 15 per cent from the same time in 2015, according to the French ­embassy in Beijing.

Even more mainland tourists will be deterred from European destinations by the killings in Nice on July 14, the Munich shooting last week and the knife attack in Normandy this week, ­analysts and travel agents say.

Leading mainland travel agency Ctrip.com said more travellers were shifting their sights to other parts of the continent.

Since the terrorist attack in Paris last year, many tourists have looked to Eastern European destinations such as Hungary and the Czech Republic or Northern European countries such as ­Finland and Sweden, the company said.

Partly as a result, tour packages to France were now 1,000 yuan (HK$1,160) to 2,000 yuan cheaper, Ctrip said.
A manager with another big online travel agency said turnover at his business for European routes doubled in 2015 but had since ground to a halt.

He said his firm’s overall business was fine because it offered trips to 150 countries but the violence could rattle the confidence of many mainland tourists, dealing a fatal blow to smaller agencies specialising in Europe.

Shenzhen office worker Qin Danfeng said she would have ­cancelled her trip to Germany if she could have got a refund on her booking.
She said anxieties about the trip took some of the shine off the holiday.

My parents told me not to talk to strangers and they chatted to me on WeChat every day to make sure that I was safe, Qin aid.

Sun Huili, a Shanghai primary school teacher who returned home on Sunday from her 10-day trip to the Czech Republic and Austria, said she went to France, Italy and Switzerland last summer with 10 of her friends, but only one wanted to go to Europe with her this year.

They said they were concerned about their safety because so many terrorist attacks have happened in recent months, she said. Some didn’t go anywhere this summer, and some chose other destinations like Australia.

Last year a record 120 million mainlanders headed overseas, with the number going to Germany up 70 per cent, Italy 41 per cent and France 48 per cent, ­according to Neil Wang, greater China president of consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.

But that momentum is reversing rapidly. As a result of the ­series of violent attacks in France, we expect that there will be a dramatic slide in mainland tourists there this year, he said.

But thanks to Brexit and the fall in value of the pound, the number of mainland tourists heading to Britain was expected to be up by half propelling it ahead of France and Italy in popularity among mainland travellers, Wang said

CHINA: Why Do Foreign Visitors Ignore China? Yet More Chinese Are Touring The World

Visitors from China may have become the biggest contributors to the global tourism market, but the Asian giant with a 5,000-year history apparently is not that attractive to foreign travellers.

The number of inbound tourists grew at an average annual rate of just 1 per cent between 2005 and 2015 – and eight out of 10 of those were from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, according to a report by a Beijing think tank.

The rate trails that of both developed countries and other emerging economies, the Centre for China and Globalisation (CCG) report said. It’s also far behind the average for the Asia-Pacific region, which saw inbound tourist traffic grow by more than 80 per cent in that period.

The National Tourism Administration has blamed the global financial crisis for visitors staying away in the past decade, but last week said the market had entered a new era of steady growth.

It posted a trade surplus of US$10.2 billion in tourism revenue for 2016 – meaning inbound spending exceeded outbound spending.
But those figures are less convincing without visitor revenue from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

Excluding visitors from those three places, the researchers found that, based on official data, Chinese tourists made 30 million more trips abroad than foreigners made to China in 2015. Those numbers remained largely unchanged last year.

Take away the three areas, and there was a big number of foreign tourists who were actually Chinese nationals living abroad. So the number of foreign visitors was really small, which is inconsistent with China’s growth in general.

More than 60 per cent of foreign tourists visiting mainland China are from Asia – mainly from South Korea and Japan, the report said.

Beijing-based tourism researcher Liu Simin said the appreciation of the yuan before 2016 had affected the market, but it was also struggling to compete with well-established holiday spots in Asia.

Popular tourist destinations in Asia such as Thailand provide better service and are often better advertised.

Foreigners may have put off travelling to China because of its reputation for polluted air and food safety problems.
Visitors are afraid of three things: the air pollution, the water pollution and the food.

Other Asian countries might be more appealing travel destinations for foreigners,Japan for example, has the reputation of being cool. When people think of Japan, they think of hi-tech, and Korea too. China seems more foreign, more scary.

Foreigners tend not to think of China as a holiday destination. China has always been reported as being dirty, polluted, not very nice people, suspicious foods, language problems.

Because of internet restrictions, viz. a lack of advertising, China doesn’t get the coverage like other Southeast Asian countries and therefore potential visitors continue to believe that China is only about the bad and the only tourist attraction is the Great Wall.

Visa policies are another a barrier. Although visa-free transit stays have been introduced in some cities, and Hainan Island offers tourist visas on arrival, strict policies otherwise apply.

China also had the world’s lowest percentage of foreign students. Of its 35 million university students, some 200,000 or less than 1 per cent were foreign. The number of long-term foreign residents, including students, was also low at about 800,000.

If there are not so many expats there are not so many people going to visit them, or sending kids to study in China.

Meanwhile, many local travel agents were focused on outbound services as the growing middle class head overseas in greater numbers.

All the agents need to do is send people to these places, whereas it takes a lot more money and effort and earns less to receive foreign tourists.

But some in the industry are trying to lure more foreign tourist dollars. Ctrip, China’s largest online travel agency, recently teamed up with the Confucius Institute Headquarters, a government organisation providing language and cultural teaching services in foreign countries to generate more interest from overseas.

Zhu Lei, who heads strategic cooperation at Ctrip’s international business unit, said China should be attracting more foreigners because of its rich history and culture, but also for other reasons including its steady currency and visa-free transit stays in some cities.

He said Beijing’s belt and road trade plan was also a chance to attract more foreign tourists. Guided by that initiative, local governments are now targeting Russia, eastern and central Europe and South Asia for inbound tourism, Zhu said.These regions will be the source of more visitors to China.

About 133 million tourists will make outbound trips by the end of 2016, according to the report released by the China Tourism Academy and the financial services company UnionPay International.

The figure would mark an 11.5 per cent rise on 2015.

Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan remain the top choices for mainland tourists, according to the report.They are followed by Thailand, South Korea and Japan.

Eastern Europe, South America, and Central Asia are set to become popular outbound destinations for Chinese travellers in the coming years, the report said.

Chinese tourists are increasingly getting involved in leisure activities and learning about local lifestyles when travelling overseas rather than just shopping, according to the report.

Chinese tourists spent US$104.5 billion overseas last year, up 16.6 per cent on 2014, and a growing number of foreign countries are relaxing their visa requirements for Chinese tourists to tap their purchasing power.

A survey conducted by HSBC last month has also suggested that there is huge growth potential catering for Chinese tourists overseas.
HSBC estimates that the number of outbound trips from China will double over the next 10 years.

While more than two-thirds of the panel respondents were passport holders, far fewer have made trips abroad. It seems we are just at the beginning, said Erwan Rambourg, a head of consumer and retail research at HSBC.

Some 2,000 people aged 18 to 34 with household income exceeding 120,000 yuan (HK$139,000) a year took part in the poll last month.



Tourism Observer

CHINA: US$4.5 Billion Education Tourism

Top overseas universities reporting record numbers of Chinese tourists this summer as more middle-class Chinese parents expose their children to wider academic horizons.

Shanghai middle-schooler Chen Mingxuan doesn’t intend to study at Oxford or Cambridge but her visit to the two top British universities this month left a deep impression on her.

Every house has centuries-old stories to tell, the teenager wrote in her travel diary. Just touching the stones, the bricks of each house, I can feel the campus’ heartbeat They hold plenty of stories, of big achievements, great discoveries.

Mingxuan’s parents organised the trip to give the 15-year-old a taste of British culture but they were not alone – Oxford and Cambridge were crowded with busloads of Chinese tourists.

I saw groups of Chinese student tourists everywhere, she said. When I took pictures, they would enter the frame of my shot.

Top overseas universities are reporting record numbers of Chinese tourists this summer as more middle-class Chinese tiger parents try to expose their children to wider academic horizons.

Education tourism is a booming business in China – it raked in 30 billion yuan (US$4.5 billion) in revenue last year is expected to grow 30 per cent annually to hit a trillion yuan within a decade.

Some 650,000 Chinese went on overseas study trips last year, Beijing Daily reported this month. The figure was an estimated 500,000 two years ago, according to Shanghai-based 2limi.com in 2015.

One company, Shanghai-based One Smart Education Group, has been organising study trips since 2006 and has seen the number of its clients grow by at least 70 per cent a year, according to deputy general manager Zachary Liu Zeyang.

This summer, One Smart is sending more than 450 students to visit top universities in Britain and the United States. A three-week trip to Britain – taking in big-name institutions like Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College London as well as enrolment talks and cultural field trips – costs 50,000 yuan (US$7,500).

Liu said one of the main draws of the tours was that they were led by Chinese students who were top scorers in China’s national college entrance exam and enrolled at the universities.

He said the students on the trips could relate to the tour leaders and be inspired by them because they were close in age.
For a very small cost, the children learn whether studying overseas is suitable for them and what kind of universities they prefer, Liu said. They return with greater confidence and are more motivated to focus on their studies.

Joe Chiu, country manager of the EF Education First International Language Centre China, said the firm’s short-term overseas courses for teenagers had been growing at a double-digit rate in recent years and expected enrolment to double in the next couple of years.

The US and Britain attracted most student tourists in summer vacations, in line with the fact that these two countries were the top destinations for Chinese students to study abroad, Chiu said. Other popular countries for study tours included Australia, Canada and Singapore.

A 21-day tour to Boston and New York that included visiting Harvard University and meeting students attending the college, cost around US$7,000 to US$8,000 per person, the manager said. The package was targeted at Chinese pupils aged between 10 and 14.

There is an increasing demand for overseas study tours, Chiu said. Our company started enrolling members for this summer’s overseas tour groups last September. We received so many applicants that openings for many popular packages had been snapped up by February.

But the sheer number of tourists converging on these university towns can not only affect the visitors’ experience but also the residents’ way of life.

A councillor in Oxford took to Twitter this month to describe the area as “tourist hell” in the summer. And in March, a Cambridge University college shut to the public for the first time in its 700-year history after campus staff complained of busloads of tourists, mostly Chinese and Japanese, turning up unannounced and trespassing into students’ bedrooms, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Beijing resident Wang Zhao saw the scale of interest first-hand on his recent trip to Oxford with his five-year-old son.
Visiting the campus was like being in a big Chinese student tour, he said. I saw our countrymen’s faces everywhere and Chinese was being spoken all the time.

Shanghai resident Nancy Zhao took her 10-year-old son Johnny Yang on a tour of Harvard University in July but her son did not seem to share her enthusiasm for the institution.

But to be honest, my son looked unimpressed with the campus. To him, Harvard is just a top world university. That’s all, Zhao said.
Personally, I’m intrigued with the campus. I liked its houses, which are historical and different from modern buildings in Chinese universities.

She said it was a shame they did not get to visit the nearby Massachusetts Institute of Technology, another top US university. The school had refused entry to all tour groups, she was told.

My husband hopes our son can become a science and technology major. MIT is the best in this regard. So we really hoped Johnny could have a look around this university, she said.

I believe the trips to these top schools will be embedded in my son’s memories and will inspire him to study hard when he grows older she further said.



Tourism Observer

CHINA: Shangri-La Hotel Putian To Open 2020 In Fujian Province

Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts announced the development of a new urban resort in Fujian Province at a groundbreaking ceremony in the Chengxiang District of Putian, scheduled to open in the fourth quarter of 2020, Shangri-La Hotel, Putian will be the group’s third property in Fujian Province, following Shangri-La hotels in Fuzhou and Xiamen.

Renowned for being the origin of Mazu, the Goddess of the Sea in Chinese culture, Putian is a well-known cultural city with a history of more than 1,400 years. It has distinctive advantages of coastal scenery and cultural tourism resources.

In recent years, Putian has successfully diversified its economy.

As an important manufacturing centre on China’s Southeast Coast, the city is being transformed and upgraded, resulting in a new level of innovation and growth.

Real estate and tourism developments are flourishing, while cultural and creative industries are being explored as new directions.

Dedicated to bringing a new international, luxurious hospitality experience to the city, Shangri-La Hotel, Putian will have 247 well-appointed guest rooms offering panoramic views of the city and Yanshou river.

The hotel will include a lobby lounge, restaurants, spa, fitness centre, swimming pool and a 1,200-square-metre ballroom.

Next to the hotel will be a lively mix of restaurants, bars and retail shops set in a 3,500-square-metre village-style plaza.

The hotel is conveniently located within a 20-minute drive from the train station.

Uniquely positioned at the juncture of history and modernity, Shangri-La Hotel, Putian will pay tribute to the river town’s ancient heritage as well as harmony between man and nature.

The hotel overlooks Yanshou River southward and the landmark Shouxi Park, which is one of the largest ecological city parks in Fujian Province.

The hotel is also adjacent to the renowned Yanshou Village, where the millennium-old Yanshou Bridge, a 900-year-old litchi tree (“The Champion Red”) and a collection of antique temples and ancestral halls are found.

The entire area will be protected and developed into a folk culture village by the local government to create a destination for leisure, recreation, culture and tourism.

Shangri-La Asia Chief Executive Officer Mr. LIM Beng Chee said, Putian has remarkable economic potential for both business and tourism, which presents a great opportunity for the goup. The design and construction of Shangri-La Hotel, Putian will reflect a distinctive blend of nature and culture. We look forward to creating a unique dining and stay experience for guests and local residents, and to bringing a dynamic lifestyle experience to the city.



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CHINA: Forest City Comming To Liuzhou

Beijing’s smog sufferers may soon have another oasis thanks to eco-conscious urban planning by Italian architecture firm Stefano Boeri Architetti.

On Monday, the designers broke ground on its aptly named ‘forest city’ development in the southern Chinese city of Liuzhou, which will consist of buildings covered in hundreds of thousands plants and trees set to reduce the pollution in the area.

The eco-friendly metropolis is designed to absorb 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide and 57 tons of pollutants per year and house about 30,000 residents, which is about .07 percent of Liuzhou’s population.

It’s likely the amenities will be comparable to the designer’s similar apartment complex in Milan’s Porta Nuova district, the Bosco Verticale, or Vertical Forest, which commands £1.7 million for a 200-square-meter penthouse.

In China, the Liuzhou development will also feature hotels to host visitors seeking fresh-air as well as an escape from the concrete jungle.

Smog-fueled tourism has already seen a boom in the country—late last year, dangerously high levels of pollution in Beijing and surrounding areas prompted wealthy residents to travel to coastal cities in China, beach resorts, ski resorts, and even out of the country entirely.

Ctrip estimated at the time that 150,000 travelers would book trips abroad in December just to get away from the capital’s poor air quality.

Nanjing in China’s eastern Jiangsu province may soon also be added to the travel destination list, should there be a similar pollution-fueled travel boom.

Stefano Boeri confirmed in April it would be building two skyscrapers in Jiangsu’s capital that will have around 3,600 trees and plants, and will house a 247-room Hyatt hotel and a museum.

Stefano Boeri’s forest developments are also slated for other Chinese cities.

Mountainous Guizhou in southwest China is expected to get a hotel, Shanghai’s Pudong Airport may soon see a “sky jungle” and Chongqing may get a suburban complex featuring “seeding hortiecture.”



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AFRICA: Africa Needs More Chinese Tourists

China has recently become the largest outbound tourist market in the world. The number of Chinese tourists traveling worldwide has grown to over a 100 million, likely to double by 2020. In 2013 Chinese tourists spent a total $102 billion dollars on their trips.

When Chinese-looking persons enter the Nairobi City Market or Massai Market Fair in Kenya’s capital, they are often greeted with “Ni Hao” as they pass shops and stands. Some local shop-keepers have a broader Mandarin vocabulary, which helps them sell African woodcarvings, fabric, or other local souvenirs to Chinese tourists.

Those numbers are expected to keep rising. Many Chinese are weary of traditional destinations, such as Europe and North America. So they are turning to Africa as a great place to spend an exotic vacation.

The numerous bilateral exchanges between China and Africa have encouraged Chinese tourism in African countries. In 2008 only 2.8 % of Chinese tourists chose Africa as a destination.

In 2014, according to the China Outbound Travel Development Report, that number has reached 9.4 %. The annual growth rate of Chinese tourist traffic to Africa has been 50% since 2010 - higher than to any other part of the world.

The most popular destination for Chinese tourists is South Africa; with direct flights currently available between Beijing and Johannesburg. Derek Hanekom, Tourism Minister of South Africa, says China is one of the important sources of tourists for his country and pledges to help create more conveniences to welcome Chinese travelers.

Other destinations popular among the Chinese are Egypt, Kenya, Cameroon, Senegal, Algeria, Angola, Mauritius, Tunisia, and Zimbabwe.

Since the Chinese government has granted Kenya an Approved Destination Status for outbound tourism in 2004, the number of Chinese tourists going there has risen. In 2013, 37,000 Chinese visited Kenya.

The same year, on a visit to China, Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta said his country’s tourism industry had set the goal of attracting a record number of 1.3 million Chinese.

Tourism in Kenya is popular in the summer when migration of animals can be observed in its national parks. When China Central Television (CCTV) aired live broadcasts of the migration of rhinos, zebras, and wilder beasts in 2012-13, that became a well-known wonder in China.

That has attracted thousands of Chinese during the summer season to Kenya.

Zhang Hongtao, director of AA lodges in Kenya, said, Now Chinese tourists book hotels six months in advance to get a room nearby even when the accommodation price doubles or triples.

The majority of Chinese tourists prefer big organized group trips within budget. About 10% of them, however, are high-end travelers who spend 4-5 times more money than the average tourist.

People in this category travel in smaller groups and avoid rough roads by taking charter flights to national parks.

They use secluded private lodges instead of hotels. While in Europe they may buy luxury brands, in South Africa their interests are diamonds.

Some of Kenya’s tour-operators, including Safari Collection, Governor’s Camp, and Loisaba Wilderness, cooperate with Chinese counterparts to promote luxury services.

There are some important tips from experts, which would be helpful to Africans in their attempts to attract more Chinese tourists and make their experience more enjoyable:

1.African governments should make tourism a greater priority on their national agenda by taking the following steps:

a). Improve safety measures around tourist sites.

b). Enhance tourism-related infrastructure.

c). Ease visa procedures for Chinese travelers.

d). Spend more on tourism promotion, which brings much easier and quicker economic returns than industrial investments.

Currently, only few African countries, such as South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Morocco have set up tourist promoting agencies in China.

If the Chinese overcome the stereotypical international fear of travel in Africa and realize what a great experience it could be, the number of their visits there would skyrocket.

2.African service and hospitality sector needs to:

a). Hire more Chinese-speakers. Many Chinese business travelers might know English, but their families members who come on a safari often might not.

b). Offer Chinese food at National Park lodges, porridge and noodles for breakfast, complimentary green tea, and hot water – all good gestures of Chinese hospitality.

Many National Park lodges in Kenya, for example do not offer any Chinese food. Some Chinese tourists, especially seniors, may enjoy their safaris, but can’t wait to return to Nairobi for Chinese food.

Even though Chinese travelers, like others, might sometimes be discouraged by problems including the Ebola epidemic in 2013-14 or an occasional terrorist assault, Chinese tourism in Africa will flourish.

Yang Jinsong, a professor of international tourism at the China Tourism Academy, considers this phenomenon astounding. “The number of Chinese tourists to Africa will rise, and rise greatly” said Yang.

South Africa is targeting Chinese and Indian tourists after relaxing its visa rules.

South Africa’s tourism industry is recovering from an ill-fated experiment with stricter visa regulations. The country welcomed nearly 3 million tourists in January this year, 15% up on a year ago, according to the tourism ministry this week.

In the last quarter of 2015, the number of tourists from China fell by nearly half, and visitors from India dropped by 15%, according to the South African Tourism Services Association.

Tourism has consistently made up 3% of South Africa’s economy in the last decade, and is a key source of jobs and foreign income, according to Statistics South Africa, a government agency.

Tourism minister Derek Hanekom attributed the revitalized growth to South Africa’s weakened currency, the elimination of the Ebola outbreak all the way over in West Africa, and scrapping controversial visa restrictions.

The laws were relaxed earlier this year but it could take up to five years for the industry to fully recover, Tourism Business Council of South Africa CEO Mmatati Ramawela said.

In October 2014, South Africa’s Home Affairs department introduced new laws that required all visitors to have their bio-metric data captured in person at an embassy or official visa center.

Children were required to travel with a certified unabridged birth certificate and the written consent of a parent where the child was traveling with one parent or a relative.

The new regulations were aimed at a broad number of issues to “balance South Africa’s openness to legitimate travelers,” home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba said at the time. His department’s main concerns were South Africa’s porous borders and national security.

But it was the legitimate travelers who may have been worst affected, especially from China and India. The tourism minister Hanekom has since traveled to China and India to reassure visitors that South Africa is once again a hassle-free dream destination.

The improved numbers still reflect a bias toward countries that have historically favored passports. Eight of the top ten visiting nationalities come from countries that don’t need visas, meaning remaining restrictions are still deterring a huge tourism market in the developing world.

South Africa is also missing out on tourists from its own continent. More than 98% of African tourists who visited South Africa, all came from countries within the Southern African Development Community.

Citizens of the 15-member trade and diplomatic community do not need visas to travel within the community, a model South Africa, and the rest of the continent, may want to consider expanding.

South Africa saw a huge increase of Chinese tourists in January and the country is expecting a Chinese tourist boom with a series of measures to facilitate their coming, according to South Africa's digital publishing house.

The report said data from Statistics South Africa show that 1,012,641 tourist arrivals to South Africa were recorded in January this year, up 15 percent from that of the same month last year.

It is the first time South Africa had more than one million tourist arrivals in a month, it said.

The report said 79 percent arrived from African countries and the others were from overseas. And of the overseas visitors, arrivals from China grew by 93 percent.

South Africa Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom indicated that despite China's economic slow-down, there is an expected boom of Chinese tourists in South Africa, the report said.

It said a series of measures have been taken to attract expected Chinese tourists.

With an Accredited Travel Company program in China, which was announced by the Department of Home Affairs of South Africa in January, Chinese travelers to South Africa don't need to make in-person applications at visa processing centers any more.

There's also no requirement for Chinese nationals to have transit visas to travel to South Africa's neighboring countries.

South Africa also opened new visa facilitation centers in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, and Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province. The country already had visa centers in Beijing and Shanghai. Five more centers are expected to be open at the end of April in another five provincial capitals.

We are confident that the number of tourists visiting South Africa from China will grow significantly this year. Our discussions with the Chinese travel trade have included measures on how to make the best of the expected boom, Hanekom said.

In 2015, China was the world's top outbound tourist market, with more than 100 million Chinese traveling abroad.

With the opening of direct flights, relaxation of visa regimes and other incentives, many African countries are expecting the arrival of more Chinese tourists.

In 2015, China Southern Airlines launched flights to Kenya's capital, Nairobi, from Guangzhou and Air China also launched direct flights from Beijing to Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa.

HONG KONG: Mainland Tourist Arrivals To Hong Kong Grow

The number of such visitors, who make up three-quarters of total visitor numbers, grew 2.2% in July from a year earlier, and helped push the overall arrival figure back into positive territory for the first time since June last year, growing by 2.6%, according to preliminary statistics.

Last year's mainland policy change in Shenzhen restricted the use of multiple-entry permits to Hong Kong. In the first half of the year, the decline in travellers with multiple-entry visas or one-entry-a-week visas shrank 36.7%, contributing to a 10.6% decrease to total mainland visitor numbers to the city.

Average Hong Kong hotel room rates were also about 10% to 15% lower in the past seven months.

The return of mainland visitors may be good news for retailers, hoteliers and tourism service operators struggling with shrinking receipts over the past couple of years.

The Tourism Board kept its full year forecast for Hong Kong tourist arrivals at a decline of 1.8%, an improvement from the 10.7% fall last year.

HONG KONG: Mainland Tourist Arrivals To Hong Kong Grow

The number of such visitors, who make up three-quarters of total visitor numbers, grew 2.2% in July from a year earlier, and helped push the overall arrival figure back into positive territory for the first time since June last year, growing by 2.6%, according to preliminary statistics.

Last year's mainland policy change in Shenzhen restricted the use of multiple-entry permits to Hong Kong. In the first half of the year, the decline in travellers with multiple-entry visas or one-entry-a-week visas shrank 36.7%, contributing to a 10.6% decrease to total mainland visitor numbers to the city.

Average Hong Kong hotel room rates were also about 10% to 15% lower in the past seven months.

The return of mainland visitors may be good news for retailers, hoteliers and tourism service operators struggling with shrinking receipts over the past couple of years.

The Tourism Board kept its full year forecast for Hong Kong tourist arrivals at a decline of 1.8%, an improvement from the 10.7% fall last year.