Hong Kong recorded a 12 percent year-on-year increase in visitor arrivals in 2025, welcoming 49.9 million tourists, according to data released by the Hong Kong Tourism Board and cited by multiple media outlets. The total remains well below pre-pandemic levels, however.
Mainland Chinese visitors continued to dominate, accounting for 76 percent of total arrivals, or 37.8 million people, up about 11 percent from 2024. But visitors from outside the mainland rose faster, climbing 14 to 15 percent year-on-year to around 12.1 million, the data showed.
Growth was strongest among long-haul markets like the US, Canada and the UK, which saw arrivals jump 20 percent. Short-haul markets including Thailand, the Philippines, Japan and Taiwan posted growth of about 15 percent, while emerging markets such as India, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Qatar recorded gains of roughly 17 percent.
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Analysts attributed the increase in mainland visitors to improved transport links and deeper integration within the Greater Bay Area (GBA), alongside a growing calendar of major crowd-luring events.
Song Ding, a research fellow at the China Development Institute, told the Global Times that the number of mainland Chinese visiting the city looked set to rise in coming years – a surge he said would be associated with “the improvement of business environment in Hong Kong.”
Despite the rebound, pre-Covid visitor numbers were significantly higher. Hong Kong welcomed more than 65 million tourists in 2018 and nearly 56 million in 2019. The average length of stay also edged down slightly to 3.1 nights in 2025, compared with 3.2 nights a year earlier.
