Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Rosanna Law announced on 8 December that inbound arrivals reached roughly 45 million between January and November 2025, already surpassing the full-year 2024 total and edging past 2018’s pre-pandemic high watermark. The 12 per cent year-on-year jump is attributed to an aggressive ‘mega-events’ calendar, including Hong Kong’s co-hosting of the 15th National Games with Guangdong and Macao and the March opening of the HK$33 billion Kai Tak Sports Park.
For global mobility programmes the numbers matter: higher visitor volumes generally translate into fuller flights and tighter hotel inventory, especially around marquee events. Travel buyers should expect upward pressure on corporate negotiated rates and may need to book serviced apartments further in advance for short-term assignees.
The Tourism Board reports that mainland Chinese visitors remain the largest segment but travellers from Southeast Asia and the Middle East showed the fastest growth, benefiting from new visa-free entry arrangements and expanded airline capacity. Notably, arrivals via the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge surged 18 per cent, underscoring the importance of multimodal connectivity in the Greater Bay Area.
![Visitor boom: Hong Kong logs 45 million arrivals in 11 months, beating pre-pandemic benchmark]()
With visa policies evolving quickly to accommodate this influx, VisaHQ can simplify compliance for both business and leisure travellers. Its Hong Kong portal (https://www.visahq.com/hong-kong/) offers up-to-date entry requirements, document checklists and digital application support, helping travel managers ensure that employees and delegates arrive with the correct paperwork amid tightening flight and hotel availability.
Officials said the next goal is to hit 55 million arrivals by year-end by leveraging December festivals such as the Hong Kong WinterFest and a packed MICE schedule at the Convention and Exhibition Centre. Corporates planning regional conferences should lock in venue space early, as prime dates for Q2 2026 are already filling up.
On the infrastructure side, the completion of the third runway and the gradual opening of Kai Tak’s hotel cluster will add capacity, but analysts caution that staffing shortages in hospitality could temper service quality if visitor growth continues at double-digit pace.
For global mobility programmes the numbers matter: higher visitor volumes generally translate into fuller flights and tighter hotel inventory, especially around marquee events. Travel buyers should expect upward pressure on corporate negotiated rates and may need to book serviced apartments further in advance for short-term assignees.
The Tourism Board reports that mainland Chinese visitors remain the largest segment but travellers from Southeast Asia and the Middle East showed the fastest growth, benefiting from new visa-free entry arrangements and expanded airline capacity. Notably, arrivals via the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge surged 18 per cent, underscoring the importance of multimodal connectivity in the Greater Bay Area.
With visa policies evolving quickly to accommodate this influx, VisaHQ can simplify compliance for both business and leisure travellers. Its Hong Kong portal (https://www.visahq.com/hong-kong/) offers up-to-date entry requirements, document checklists and digital application support, helping travel managers ensure that employees and delegates arrive with the correct paperwork amid tightening flight and hotel availability.
Officials said the next goal is to hit 55 million arrivals by year-end by leveraging December festivals such as the Hong Kong WinterFest and a packed MICE schedule at the Convention and Exhibition Centre. Corporates planning regional conferences should lock in venue space early, as prime dates for Q2 2026 are already filling up.
On the infrastructure side, the completion of the third runway and the gradual opening of Kai Tak’s hotel cluster will add capacity, but analysts caution that staffing shortages in hospitality could temper service quality if visitor growth continues at double-digit pace.
