A record 1.69 million visitors came to Hong Kong in October this year, the highest ever recorded for a single month, registering a seven percent increase from that of the same month last year, the Hong Kong Tourism Board said in a press release on Wednesday.

The better performance was boosted by the large number of arrivals from the Chinese mainland during the National Day "Golden Week" holiday and could be attributed also to the Tourism Board's promotional events.

Some 878,000 people from the Chinese mainland visited Hong Kong in October, an increase of 31.2 percent as compared with the same month last year.

The average occupancy rate in October reached 85 percent in all categories of hotels and tourist guesthouses in Hong Kong.

For long-haul markets, Europe, Africa and the Middle East were the strongest October performers with 150,017 arrivals.

(People's Daily November 27, 2003)