Despite a severe fall-off in the number of visitors since the outbreak of atypical pneumonia, the figures for March remained positive.

The provisional total is 1.34 million, an increase of 3.6% over the same month last year.

However, there is a rapid downturn from mid-March onwards. While there is 19.1% growth in the first half of the month, the latter half witnessed a fall of 10.4%.

Hong Kong Tourism Board Executive Director Clara Chong said in the early stages of the outbreak, the drop in arrivals was not too severe.

"This is because many travellers had already confirmed their bookings, and at that stage only a few countries had issued health advice on travel to this region. However, the situation has deteriorated progressively as worldwide concern about the spread has grown."

She said the plummeting trend is very worrying, and she expects the forward bookings for the next few months will be very low. 

"It is clear that April is going to be an extremely difficult month for the tourist industry, especially after the World Health Organisation issued a global advice against non-essential travel to Hong Kong and Guangdong."

She said this measure will deal a blow to tourism in the short term, but it is only temporary as WHO has said that it will reassess the situation when it stabilises.

Ms Chong added that although the outbreak was the major issue affecting travel to Hong Kong, the war in Iraq was another dampening factor. 

"Even if the atypical pneumonia situation shows improvement, a long drawn-out war would continue to affect public sentiment to travel," she said.

Ms Chong said the tourism board, its overseas offices, the Government and the travel trade both locally and internationally are preparing for a strong "comeback campaign" to restore travellers' confidence in Hong Kong as soon as the time was right.

"All the fundamentals that make Hong Kong such a diverse and exciting place to visit are still there," she said. "The entire industry stands ready to unite in putting Hong Kong firmly back on the tourism map."

In February, the number of arrivals grew 26.2%, compared with the same month in 2002. The total number is 1,408,139, the highest February figure on record, with every long-haul and short-haul market showing positive growth.

Taking into account the provisional figures for March, the cumulative number of arrivals for the first three months of the year stands at nearly 4.3 million, a growth of 19.8%. 

The average occupancy rate across all categories of hotels and tourist guest houses in February was 81%, compared with only 75% in February 2002.