Hong Kong Visitor Arrivals in August 2012

Visitor arrivals to Hong Kong in August 2012 rose 20.5% year-on-year to 4,898,843. [See: Hong Kong Visitor Arrivals in August 2011]

 In the first eight months of the year, visitor arrivals rose to 31,591,383, 16.0% more than in the corresponding period in last year.

In August 2012, Hong Kong received about 2.48 million overnight arrivals, which represented approximately 51% of all visitor arrivals to the city and more than a 10% increase over the same month in 2011.

 Same-day visitor arrivals exceeded 2.42 million (49.4% of total arrivals), up 32.2% compared with the previous August.

Cumulatively, overnight arrivals and same-day arrivals between January and August stood respectively at 15.68 million and 15.91 million, or 49.6% and 50.4% of overall arrivals.

The Hong Kong Tourism Board has also just published the “Total Tourism Expenditure Associated to Inbound Tourism” (TEAIT) for the first half of 2012, which was HK$138.37 billion, a year-on-year increase of 17.7%.

 The per capita spending of visitors also went up – with that of overnight visitors up 7.8% to HK$7,736 and that of same-day visitors up 3.8% to HK$2,075.

AirAsia to Become First Airbus A320 Sharklets Operator

AirAsia will become the first operator of the A320 with ‘Sharklets’ when it takes delivery of the first A320 equipped with these fuel-saving wing-tip devices at the end of this year.

The aircraft exhibited on static and flying display at the ILA Berlin Air Show is the flight test aircraft for CFM engines and will also be delivered to AirAsia in 2013.

"The A320 has played a key role in our success, enabling us to offer our passengers the lowest fares possible and completely redefine short haul travel in Asia.” said Tony Fernandes, AirAsia Group CEO. “Now we are looking forward to become the first airline in the world to start operating this most fuel-efficient aircraft.”

Sharklets will be fitted on previously ordered, newly-built A320s for AirAsia, scheduled for delivery from the end of 2012.

They are expected to result in close to 4% fuel savings on longer sectors, corresponding to an annual CO2 reduction of around 1,000 tonnes per aircraft.

Altogether, AirAsia has ordered a total of 375 single aisle aircraft, comprising 200 A320neo and 175 A320ceo, of which 103 have been delivered to date.