The number of Hong Kong's visitor arrivals totaled 2.42 million in November 2008, a year-on- year decrease of 1.1 percent, according to the figures released on Wednesday by the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB).

The figures bring Hong Kong's cumulative arrivals for January to November 2008 to 26.7 million, up 5.3 percent, compared with the same period of last year.

In November, the Chinese mainland visitors reached 1.36 million, 5.6 percent higher than last year. Visitors from South and Southeast Asia, China's Taiwan, and Australia, New Zealand and other South Pacific countries fell 3.6 percent, 5 percent, and 4.8 percent respectively.

Falls were also seen in visitors from North Asia, (14 percent lower), Europe, Africa and the Middle East (10.9 percent lower), and the Americas (16.9 percent lower).

About 59 percent of all visitors to Hong Kong stayed in the city for at least one night, 1.5 percent lower than last year. The rest were same-day in-town visitors.

Of the total mainland arrivals in November, 749,303 or 55 percent arrived under the individual visit scheme, up 11.8 percent. This brought the cumulative arrivals under the scheme to 8.67 million in the first 11 months, a rise of 12.4 percent.

Hotel occupancy across all categories of hotels in November was 88 percent, down five percentage points. The average achieved hotel room rate across all hotel categories was 1,228 Hong Kong dollars (157.4 U.S. dollars), 11.2 percent lower than last November.

(Xinhua News Agency December 25, 2008)