Tourism head cautiously upbeat on arrival numbers
The Tourism Board's executive director on Saturday said he is optimistic that 30 million tourists will visit Hong Kong this year - about 15 percent up on the board's previous forecast of 26 million. Speaking on an RTHK programme, Dane Cheng said the pace of tourism recovery is "satisfactory". "For the first six months of the year, we have seen close to 13 million of visitor arrivals, and usually the second half is stronger. So I think the whole year could exceed our original target or forecast of 26 million, and I would be quite optimistic that we could reach 30 million," he said. While 30 million tourists will be a huge jump from the 600,000 that Hong Kong saw in 2022 during the pandemic, it is just around half of the 56 million in 2019. But Cheng said people shouldn't focus too much on when tourist numbers will return to pre-Covid levels. "I think it's important for us to all realise that it's not the crucial thing for us to recover back to a hundred percent of pre-Covid numbers. I think it's important that we give our visitors a good experience when they come to visit Hong Kong," he said. "At the same time, we have to also take into account Hong Kong's community and how to be a good host... Let's have a good experience and progressively recover the industry." Cheng said the city has new attractions to offer after the pandemic, including the M+ and palace museums, and the sector is working to resolve manpower shortages and ramp up flights to revive local tourism.