HK lowers income target from tourism

JAKARTA (JP): Hong Kong has lowered its target for foreign exchange receipts from foreign tourists this year on an expected drop in foreign arrivals.

The Hong Kong Tourist Association (HKTA) said here yesterday that tourist arrivals this year would drop 10 percent compared to 1996 due to the currency crisis in most Southeast Asian countries.

Susan Loh, a senior manager of HKTA, said here yesterday that Hong Kong saw a 14 percent increase in foreign tourist arrivals last year to 11.7 million people.

Foreign exchange earnings from the foreign tourists rose 12.8 percent to HK$84.52 billion (US$10 billion) in the same year.

"However, it's hard to forecast how much the tourist receipts will total this year. But the figure will likely be lower than in 1996 as the number of tourist arrivals is projected to drop," she said.

She said HKTA originally targeted an increase of about 7 percent in arrivals this year.

"But we lowered the target 10 percent earlier this month."

HKTA announced in July that it expected 12 million tourists to spend US$12.27 billion in the city this year.

According to Loh, in the first nine months of this year, 7.91 million tourists visited Hong Kong, down 6.5 percent over the same period last year.

Receipts from tourism totaled about HK$55.4 billion in the first three quarters this year, 9.2 percent lower than the same period in 1996, she added.

In September, there were 732,038 tourists, a decrease of 22.4 percent over the same month last year, she said.

Hong Kong, which was handed over to China July 1 after being a British colony for 156 years, saw an increase in Indonesian visitors in the first three quarters this year, she said.

"There were 143,132 Indonesians visiting Hong Kong in the first nine months. That is 5.2 percent higher over the same period in 1996," she said.

Travel and tourism was one of Hong Kong's major foreign exchange earners.

Last year, most of Hong Kong's tourists came from Japan, Taiwan, the United States, Britain and the Philippines. From the Southeast Asian nations, Hong Kong drew most tourists from the Philippines, followed by Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. (icn)