Visitors to Hong Kong in the first half of 2007 rose 6.8%, to more than 13 million from a year earlier, the Tourism Board says. June saw a 7.7% year-on-year growth in arrivals, to more than 2.03 million visitors.

Arrivals from every region increased in the first half, with the Mainland recording 5.9% growth. Arrivals from South & Southeast Asia grew by 6.1%; Europe, Africa & the Middle East by 16.1%; Australia, New Zealand & South Pacific by 11.2%; North Asia by 8%; the Americas by 6.8% and Taiwan by 2.5%.

Several individual markets that showed strong growth last year continued their robust performance in the first six months. These include the Philippines (up 19%), India (10.2%), South Korea (18.1%), Russia (18.4%) and the Netherlands (10.3%).

In the first half of this year, 54.3% of 7.1 million Mainland visitors travelled to Hong Kong under the Individual Visit Scheme, marking a 21.9% increase over the same period last year. About 51.3% of June arrivals from the Mainland travelled under the scheme, a 23.7% year-on-year growth. 

More than 60.5% of the total arrivals in the first half of the year stayed in the city for at least one night, while 39.5% were classified as same-day in-town visitors. The overnight and same-day arrivals for June 2007 were 1.21 million and 824,100.