Ten million arrivals say hello to HK in five months
Official figures released on Thursday show that more than 10 million visitors arrived in Hong Kong in the first five months of this year, accounting for about 40 percent of pre-pandemic levels.  The Hong Kong Tourism Board said people from the mainland made up almost 80 percent of those travelling to the SAR between January and May, adding that half of the total arrivals were leisure visitors.  It also said about 2.83 million people visited the SAR last month alone, down slightly from April.  Nearly 2.3 million of them came from the mainland. Visitor numbers in May, however, remained at only around 56 percent of what they were before Covid hit. The board said it expects airline capacity, the global economy and regional competition to be among the factors that affect the speed of the tourism sector's recovery. Having seen visitor numbers fall to a trickle during the pandemic, the government and the tourism sector have set up a series of initiatives to bring tourists back, including February's launch of the "Hello Hong Kong" campaign, free airline tickets and other incentives.