Tourists seem to be heading back to Hong Kong in record numbers for the first time since 2018. The city’s tourism board recently announced that the territory welcomed over 44 million visitors in 2024, with the majority making cross-border trips from Mainland China. Official data also reveals that arrivals from the Philippines were at an all-time high, with a little under 1.2 million Filipinos coming to the SAR last year.
Hong Kong’s Tourism Rebound
According to a report released by the Hong Kong Tourism Board, 44.5 million sightseers entered Hong Kong for same-day, overnight, and longer stays in 2024. More than 34 million visitors came from Mainland China and the remaining 10.5 million entered from other countries and regions. While the territory has come a long way from its 10-year low of 91,000 entries in 2021, the numbers are still a far cry from 2018 when tourist numbers soared to over 65 million.
The trend of increasing arrivals carried into 2025, when more than 4.7 million travellers headed to the Hong Kong in January, setting a post-pandemic record. This was in no small part thanks to the SAR’s Chinese New Year celebrations, when nearly 1.3 million holidaymakers flocked to the city during the Golden Lunar New Year Week.
Where Hong Kong’s Visitors Are Coming From
Taiwanese tourists accounted for the highest non-Mainland entries in 2024, with 1.2 million arrivals coming from the island to Hong Kong. The city also welcomed 1.19 million Filipino vacationers — a historic high attributed to the country’s geographic closeness to Hong Kong, its robust economic growth, and the popularity of the 852’s theme parks, particularly Hong Kong Disneyland.
Short-haul markets showed the biggest recovery in 2024 — visitors from South Korea more than doubled since 2023, and traveller numbers from Asian markets like Japan, Malaysia, and Indonesia showed significant improvement. There were also more tourists from the US, Australia, and Canada compared to the previous year. The tourism board also tapped new markets like Russia and India, where visitor increases went up by 118% and 72% respectively.
The city appears to be reclaiming its status as a top destination for travellers, with Hong Kong placing fourth on Euromonitor International’s Top 10 Cities for International Arrivals after Bangkok, Istanbul, and London. Last month, a report from global travel data provider OAG revealed that Hong Kong International Airport was among the 10 busiest airports in 2024 due to an increased seat capacity of 40% during the year.
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