Around 373,000 Chinese mainland tourists visited Hong Kong during the Lunar New Year period of Feb.6 to 13, up 14 percent over last year's same period, according to statistics made by Hong Kong Immigration Department.

Lunar New Year is the most important festival for most of Chinese people. With the expansion of the Individual Visit Scheme, more and more Chinese mainland people prefer to spend most part of their seven-day Lunar New Year holiday in Hong Kong.

Enjoying shopping at the "Shopping Paradise" and beautiful scenic spots in comfortable weather was the favorite of many Chinese mainland tourists.

Catering to the needs of both Hong Kong citizens and Chinese mainland tourists, about 70 percent of shops in business downtown areas such as Causeway Bay, Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok opened as usual and most of them had satisfying revenue.

3D-Gold, a famous HK jewelry brand, obtained tens of millions of business revenue during the Lunar New Year period. With the regular marketing of new products and the attraction of more Chinese mainland customers, the company is confident about its prospects in 2005.

SOGO is one of the most well-known department store for Chinese mainland tourists. Mandarin-speaking customers can be seen here and there in the department store. According to a SOGO manager, the department store's business in the first day of the Lunar New Year (Feb. 9) witnessed a digital growth, though the department store's business hour that day was two hours shorter than usual. Many owners of restaurants and shops said their revenue during the Lunar New Year were about 30 percent to 40 percent higher than that of last year.

There are also some memorable records during the festive period. Around 150,000 passengers traveled through Hong Kong International Airport on Feb. 13, setting a new record for single day passenger traffic since the new airport's opening in 1998.

And the number of aircraft movements was highest on Feb. 9, the first day of the Lunar New Year, with 743 landings and takeoffs, against 650 flights on an average day. This came close to the record 747 aircraft movements made on April 9, 2004.

The visits by more Chinese mainland tourists also helped lift the hotel room occupancy rate in Hong Kong.

According to sources from the Federation of Hong Kong Hotel Owners, the number of Chinese mainland tourists on the Individual Visit Scheme apparently increased during the current Lunar New Year period when the average hotel room occupancy rate reached 86 percent.

To add more festival atmosphere and attract more tourists, Hong Kong's tourism departments also arranged Lunar New Year night parade and fireworks show on the first and second day of the LunarNew Year.

Hong Kong tourism-related sectors believed that with many new attractions including the Hong Kong Disneyland coming on stream, Hong Kong will continue to be the most popular tourist destination among all Asian cities.

The tourism departments estimated earlier that a total of 660,000 tourists would pay visits to Hong Kong during the Lunar New Year period.

Source: Xinhua