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Hong Kong received 367,000 tourists from the Chinese mainland in the first six days of the National Day "Golden Week" from Oct. 1 to 7, which indicated a single digit growth over the same period of 2004, said Eva Cheng, Hong Kong commissioner for tourism in a radio talk show on Saturday.
She made the remarks while summing up Hong Kong's "achievements" during the National Day "Golden Week".
People of China's mainland now enjoy three seven-days holidays every year, namely, the Spring Festival, the Labor Day holidays and the National D holidays. These three long holidays are called "Golden Weeks."
Though the growth rate is less than expected, she said she felt satisfied with the fact that the number of tourists on individual visit scheme and number of tourist groups to Hong Kong have during the "Golden Week" is up about 10 percent over last year's same period.
Eva Cheng had said before the "Golden Week" that, the current indications were that about 500,000 visitors may arrive from the Chinese mainland in 10 days around the Golden Week.
Cheng said considering Hong Kong's tourist receiving capacity, the stable growth of tourist arrivals is a good thing for Hong Kong.
Talking about Hong Kong Disneyland, which opened just on Sept. 12, she said the number of visitors to Hong Kong Disneyland has met the expectation. And according a survey conducted by Hong Kong Disneyland, about 90 percent of visitors to the theme park expressed satisfaction with their tour.
Hong Kong Disneyland extended its business time for two hours during the holidays, one in the morning and one in the evening for holiday visitors. However, it has always declined to disclose the number of tourists it has received.
Hong Kong media reported that the theme park received about 15,000 visitors on the National Day and passengers there had to wait 15 to 30 minutes for a single game. The number is far from its ceiling of around 30,000.
In a separate development, Hong Kong retailers reported moderate growth during the "Golden Week."
According to Kwan Pak-hoo, chairman of Hong Kong Retail Management Association, Hong Kong department stores have become the biggest winner of the "Golden Week" and their business volume witnessed double digit growth.
In Sogo Department Store in Causeway Bay, many Chinese mainland tourists were spotted to leave the department stores with several bags of goods during the holidays.
The department stores had really made much efforts for attracting passengers, discount, coupons, exhibitions of various kinds and some other kinds of promotion methods to attract Chinese mainland passengers.
Kwan admitted that though the retail sector could hardly realize the high double digit growth as that of two years ago, the individual visit scheme is still helpful for boosting Hong Kong tourism and economy.
He believed that the number of Chinese mainland tourists on individual visit scheme may not grow greatly during the future "Golden Weeks," they would visit Hong Kong all year around.
He said the business of the electronics shops also gained a single digit growth while the fast food restaurants only obtained limited growth during the holidays.
The per capita spending of each Chinese mainland tourist is estimated reduced from the about 5,000 Hong Kong dollars to 4,000 Hong Kong dollars, as many of them have paid more than one visit to Hong Kong in the past two years.
Looking ahead, Eva Cheng said in the coming years, Hong Kong will mainly focus on family tourists and business tourists.
(Xinhua News Agency October 9, 2005)
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