Hotels and tourism

According to the figures from the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB), the city recorded 22.32 million visitor arrivals in the first half of 2012, a year-on-year rise of 15.5 per cent. HKTB chairman James Tien said he was encouraged to see that, amid the global economic uncertainty, Hong Kong’s tourism industry was still reporting satisfactory growth.

In fact, hotel rooms have always been in short supply, as more and more mainland tourists visit Hong Kong. The industry has long been hoping that the government can help solve the problem.

Over the past few years, the government has included land for building hotels in the list of sites for sale. Between February 2012 and March 2013, two sites on the list were designated for hotels:  the western part of the former North Point Estate, and Murray Building, on Cotton Tree Drive in Central.

New hotels are about to be built, while more and more private properties will be transformed into hotels as the market is booming. The city is expected to have 50 more hotels by 2016, with 9,000 additional hotel rooms.