Hong Kong visitors plunge 40pc
Hong Kong visitor arrivals plunged nearly 40 percent in August from a year earlier, deepening from July’s 5 percent fall, the finance secretary said as sometimes violent anti-government protests take a rising toll on the city’s tourism, retail and hotel businesses.
Hotels in some locations had seen occupancy rates drop to about half, while room rates plunged 40-70 percent, Paul Chan said, citing industry sources.
“The most worrying thing is that it does not seem that the road ahead is easily going to turn any better,” Chan said in his blog on Sunday. July tourist arrivals fell 4.8 percent on the year, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board, the first annual decline since January 2018 and the biggest percentage drop since August 2016.
Retail sales in July sank by the most since February 2016 amid the anti-government protests that have gripped the Chinese-ruled city for more than three months.
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