HONG KONG HOPES DOUBLE DIGIT GROWTH IN MALAYSIAN TOURISTS

KUALA LUMPUR, May 9 (Bernama) -- The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) hopes to see double digit growth in visitors from Malaysia this year, saying that Hong Kong, as Asia's World City, is well positioned to offer visitors multiple destinations in a single trip.

HKTB Executive Director Anthony Lau said the number of Malaysian tourists last year increased by 31 per cent to around 578,000, and 53 per cent of them made multi-destination travels from Hong Kong.

"The Asian outbound travel market is booming, and the majority of the trips are within Asia.

"In particular, arrivals from Malaysia to Hong Kong, Macau and Guangdong have been on the increasing trend," he told reporters after the Joint Pearl River Delta Tourism Promotion Luncheon 2011 here Monday.

HKTB has teamed up with tourism organisations in Guangzhou, Macau, Zhongshan and Jiangmen in a first-ever joint visit to Southeast Asia from Monday until Wednesday.

Other than Malaysia, the delegation also will visit Singapore and Indonesia to meet with the travel partners and media to introduce the latest development in the cities as well as to promote multi-destination travel packages featuring these five cities.

"Capitalising on the these positive factors, we have been working closely together to promote travel to our region," Lau added.

During the visit, the five partners introduced a range of multi-destination itineraries of different themes, including those featuring theme parks and heritage sites for the family segment and the gourmet tour for food lovers.