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The 876,000 visitors from Korea to Hong Kong last year represented a 21.9% increase, and the growth was the highest among inbound visitors from all sources around the world.
The figures were announced tonight (March 17) by the Principal Representative of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, Mrs Jennie Chok, during a dinner reception in Jeju, Korea.
She said reciprocally more than 140,000 Hong Kong people visited Korea last year, bringing the total number of visitors between the two places to more than one million for the first time.
Noting that Hong Kong was ranked 14th in global travel and tourism competitiveness among the 130 regions according to the Geneva-based World Economic Forum, Mrs Chok said Hong Kong last year received a record number of more than 28 million visitors, representing an increase of more than 11% compared with 2006.
She said that over the past few years, Hong Kong had launched a series of major tourism projects such as Hong Kong Disneyland, Hong Kong Wetland Park, Ngong Ping 360 as well as the "Symphony of Lights" that was staged on both sides of Victoria Harbour every evening.
Mrs Chok said Hong Kong would continue to invest heavily in tourism infrastructure, including redevelopment of Ocean Park into the world's leading marine-based theme park, and a new world-class cruise terminal at Kai Tak.
"We are attaching equal importance to the development and promotion of cultural tourism and green tourism," she said.
"The Government strives to work closely with the industry to ensure quality services and protection of consumer rights for our visitors," she said.
At the reception, Mrs Chok took the opportunity to update guests on Hong Kong's competitive advantages as well as latest economic developments.
Noting that bilateral trade between Hong Kong and Korea had grown significantly over the past few years, she called on Korean enterprises to make use of Hong Kong's special status as a Special Administrative Region of China and its CEPA benefits to tap into the growing Mainland market.
Hosted by the HKETO, the reception was attended by some 60 government officials and senior executives from the business and tourism sectors.
Ends/Monday, March 17, 2008
Issued at HKT 19:00
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