The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) announced on Friday that a total of 2,728,107 visitor arrivals to Hong Kong were recorded in September, up 21.2 percent from a year earlier.

Cumulatively, arrivals in the first three quarters of 2010 reached 26,175,950, which was a 23.7 percent increase year-on-year, HKTB said.

The data showed mainland arrivals rose by 22.7 percent to more than 1.62 million in September, driving further gain in overall visitor arrivals.

Such momentum of growth, which sustained after the summer holidays, showed that since the implementation of measures under the Individual Visit Scheme in Shenzhen, mainland visitors no longer traveled to Hong Kong only during the peak travel seasons and festive holidays, HKTB said.

For short-haul markets, expanded flight capacity between Hong Kong and South and Southeast Asia brought along remarkable growth in arrivals, which increased by 20.3 percent compared to September 2009.