For December alone, the Airport Authority recorded 1.6 million passengers, a nine-fold increase from the same period in 2021.
But the airport’s total cargo throughput in 2022 dropped 16.4 per cent year on year to 4.2 million tonnes, while flight movements fell 4.2 per cent. Hong Kong previously held the position of the world’s busiest international cargo airport between 1996 and 2021.
Meanwhile, cruise ships are once again set to dock in Hong Kong after avoiding port there since last July. Silversea Cruises’ liner Silver Spirit is set to arrive in the city tomorrow, on Wednesday, following stopovers in Thailand and Vietnam.
Resorts World Cruises also said its first ship would use Hong Kong as its homeport from March 10, with the company to offer two and three-night itineraries and departing the city every Friday, Sunday and Wednesday on a weekly basis.
The tourism sector in Hong Kong showed promising results in 2022 with the arrival of 604,564 tourists in 2022 which is six times more than the 2021 figure, with more than half of travellers coming from mainland China.
The last three months of 2022 saw a gradual increase in the influx of visitors with the figures for October, November and December standing at 80,524, 113,763 and 160,584, respectively, the city’s Tourism Board said on Monday. This is a sharp increase from the 2021 figure when only 91,000 tourists landed in Hong Kong.
Travellers from China made up a large share of last year’s total figure, with 375,144 arrivals coming to Hong Kong from the mainland.
