Hong Kong seeks a path back among the world’s leading tourism hubs, WTTC calls for expansion toward foreign markets

Hong Kong seeks a return among the world’s leading tourism hubs, WTTC calls for expansion toward higher-value markets

Hong Kong has entered a new phase of tourism recovery: arrivals are rising strongly, air links are being restored, and the city authorities and tourism sector are trying to capitalize on a new wave of investment in order to re-establish the city as one of the most recognizable travel and business hubs in Asia. But the latest assessment by the World Travel & Tourism Council, WTTC, warns that growth in visitor numbers alone is no longer enough. The key question is what kind of guests are arriving, how much they spend, how long they stay, and whether Hong Kong can once again attract a larger share of international travelers who bring greater added value for hospitality, retail, the convention industry, food service, and transport. According to WTTC research, Hong Kong can restore its status as a leading global destination, but only if it moves more decisively away from relying on one dominant source market and simultaneously strengthens its offer for high-value international guests.

That assessment comes at a time when official statistics show a visible recovery. The Hong Kong Tourism Board, HKTB, announced that during 2025 the city received 49.9 million visitors, which is 12 percent more than a year earlier. At the same time, the Hong Kong government states in its official tourism overview that tourism in 2024 accounted for 2.8 percent of GDP and employed around 159,700 people, or 4.3 percent of total employment. In other words, this remains a sector that is important not only for the city’s image but also for the real economy, the labor market, and service activities linked to visitor arrivals.

Arrival numbers are rising, but the visitor mix remains a challenge

It is precisely in the structure of that recovery that WTTC sees the main problem. According to the estimate from the Hong Kong report, travelers from mainland China accounted for 76 percent of total arrivals in 2025, while all other international markets represented 24 percent. HKTB annual data confirm the same ratio: of the 49.9 million guests, 37.8 million came from mainland China, and about 12.1 million from all other markets combined. This means that Hong Kong really is recovering, but with a very pronounced concentration on one enormous and naturally most important neighboring market. For the city’s economy, this brings a dual effect. On the one hand, the Chinese market provides stable volume and enables a rapid return of traffic. On the other hand, excessive dependence on a single source of arrivals increases vulnerability to changes in consumer habits, economic cycles, regulatory rules, and regional competition.

WTTC therefore is not advocating a move away from mainland China, but rather a broadening of the base. According to that analysis, Hong Kong should more aggressively target higher-spending travelers from Southeast Asia, India, and the Middle East, while also more strongly rebuilding long-haul markets such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe. This approach largely matches the current direction of the Hong Kong government. In the tourism plan Blueprint 2.0, published at the end of December 2024, the authorities explicitly state that they want to develop diversified source markets with a focus on high-value overnight guests, and not only on the total number of entries into the city.

Why a high number of visitors alone is not enough

For decades, Hong Kong was a symbol of urban tourism that combines shopping, finance, trade fairs, congresses, gastronomy, and strong air traffic. But the tourism picture after the pandemic is significantly different from what it was before 2019. WTTC estimates that the travel and tourism sector in 2025 reached 98.5 percent of the 2018 level, which at first glance looks like an almost completed recovery. However, behind that figure lies a much more complex story. According to the same estimate, international visitor spending in 2025 remained about 15 percent below the 2018 level, while competing destinations in the region, such as Singapore and Macau, have already surpassed pre-pandemic values.

In practical terms, this means that Hong Kong is succeeding in attracting guests, but not to the extent and with the profile that would restore the old level of spending. If visitors come for shorter periods, spend more cautiously, or more often choose day trips and short stays, the benefits for hotels, restaurants, shops, convention centers, and the cultural sector remain more limited. For 2025, HKTB reported an average stay of 3.1 nights among overnight guests, and WTTC in the same context warns that this is less than in 2019, when the average was 3.3 nights. A seemingly small difference becomes important when multiplied by tens of millions of arrivals and by total daily spending in the city.

That is precisely why there is increasing talk about the “quality” of recovery, and not only the “quantity.” In Blueprint 2.0, the Hong Kong government openly emphasizes that development should be focused more on quality than on the sheer mass of visitors. This is an important political and economic message because it shows that the authorities accept a change in pattern: future success will no longer be measured only by the number of border crossings, but also by how much added value tourism generates, how much it eases seasonality, how much it encourages longer stays, and how evenly it spills over into different city districts and sectors.

Business travel and the MICE sector remain the key test

WTTC particularly highlights business travel and the MICE segment, meaning meetings, incentive travel, conventions, and exhibitions. This is no coincidence. For decades, Hong Kong was one of Asia’s most important platforms for international business events, and such guests are among the most valuable because they spend more on accommodation, events, restaurants, transport, and additional services. According to WTTC, business traveler spending in 2025 remained 16.8 percent lower than before the series of shocks that hit the city, from the political unrest of 2019 to the pandemic that then severely affected global mobility and the convention industry.

Official Hong Kong data nevertheless show that the MICE segment is among the liveliest parts of the recovery. In its annual report, HKTB states that in 2024 Hong Kong received 1.42 million overnight MICE visitors, which was 72 percent of the pre-pandemic level. Even more importantly, their average spending per person amounted to HK$7,800, or about 40 percent more than the average among other overnight guests. In other words, although their number has not yet fully returned to the old level, this is a traveler profile that contributes much more strongly to the city’s tourism economy than the average visitor.

WTTC therefore recommends targeted incentives for event organizers, simplification of procedures for international conventions, and additional positioning of Hong Kong as a regional hub for business gatherings. The city’s institutions are already moving in that direction. In February 2026, HKTB opened the first dedicated center for MICE visitors at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai, while the government also announced additional funding through the 2026/2027 budget to strengthen promotion, events, and the overall tourism offer.

A new strategy: less reliance on shopping, more on the city experience

One of the more interesting messages from the WTTC report is that Hong Kong should no longer build its international identity primarily on retail and shopping. In the period before the pandemic, the city was synonymous with luxury shopping, department stores, shopping districts, and duty-free spending, especially among guests from mainland China. Today, that model is changing. Global travelers are looking for more content, more authentic experiences, and a thematically richer stay, while competition in Asia is becoming fiercer.

That is why WTTC recommends transforming Hong Kong into a multidimensional destination in which gastronomy, heritage, festivals, cultural life, sports events, and the experience of city neighborhoods become the main motive for travel, while shopping remains important, but no longer the only central point. At this level too, the recommendations align with what the authorities are already trying to implement. The government’s tourism overview emphasizes the “tourism is everywhere” model, and among the priorities it lists a deeper linking of tourism with culture, sport, ecology, and major events. The same document also highlights the development of neighborhood tourism, the promotion of island and green tourism, and investment in artistic and sports content.

For Hong Kong, this is more than a marketing change. It is an attempt to present the city, which for a long time was perceived above all as a commercial and financial center, as a full-blooded urban destination with a diverse identity. On that map, an important place is held by the West Kowloon Cultural District, major gastronomic events, traditional festivals, museums, sports spectacles, and new infrastructure such as Kai Tak Sports Park, which officially opened on March 1, 2025, and is already being seen as a new generator of mega-events and visitor spending.

Air links and accessibility are once again becoming an advantage

For the strategy of expanding toward more distant markets to be implemented at all, Hong Kong must have sufficient air connectivity. In that segment, the city is recording encouraging signals. According to OAG data for 2025, Hong Kong International Airport recorded the highest annual growth in seat capacity among the world’s ten busiest international airports, with growth of 12 percent and 38.7 million seats. OAG also stated that the Hong Kong–Taipei route was the world’s busiest cross-border air route in 2025, with around 6.8 million seats. Those figures show that Hong Kong remains deeply integrated into the regional and global air network, which is a prerequisite for the recovery of both the leisure and business segments.

An additional signal also comes from Cathay. In March 2026, the group announced that in 2025 it had launched flights to 20 new destinations and that its passenger network had grown to more than 100 destinations worldwide. This does not automatically mean that all capacities will immediately generate higher tourism revenues, but it shows that Hong Kong is once again strengthening the tool without which there can be no serious return among the world’s leading tourism hubs: global accessibility.

What the latest data from 2026 show

The freshest official numbers point to a continuation of the upward trend this year as well. On March 17, 2026, HKTB announced that in the first two months of this year Hong Kong received 9.95 million visitors, which is 18 percent more than in the same period last year. Of that, 7.9 million came from mainland China, with year-on-year growth of 22 percent, while 2.06 million guests arrived from other markets, or eight percent more than a year earlier. Particularly notable is the growth in arrivals from Australia, France, and Germany, where the increase ranged between 20 and 30 percent.

These figures confirm two parallel realities. The first is that Hong Kong continues to profit strongly from Chinese holidays, major events, and the proximity of the vast mainland market. The second is that the city is nevertheless also recording a visible return of more distant markets, which is crucial for WTTC’s thesis. The recovery will be more stable only when growth in the international segment starts to improve total spending faster, and not just the arrival statistics.

The government is investing more, but competition in the region is not standing still

In the 2026/2027 budget, the Hong Kong government has allocated HK$1.66 billion for the Tourism Board, along with the announcement of expanding promotional campaigns, extending key events, and introducing new elements that should strengthen the city’s recognizability as a place where East and West meet. This is an important signal to the market because it shows that the authorities do not treat tourism as a passive consequence of economic recovery, but as an active lever of development.

However, Hong Kong today no longer competes in an empty space. Singapore, Macau, Dubai, Bangkok, Tokyo, and Seoul are also aggressively competing for international conventions, luxury guests, family tourism, major sporting events, and the premium gastronomic segment. That is precisely why WTTC insists on stronger coordination between the public and private sectors. For a city like Hong Kong, which has a strong institutional framework, a recognizable brand, and developed infrastructure, the question is no longer whether the potential exists, but whether it can connect different instruments into a unified and convincing strategy.

If anything can be concluded from the latest figures and recommendations, it is that Hong Kong has not returned to the global tourism race merely thanks to the inertia of its own name. The recovery is real, but it is not yet complete in the part that brings the greatest economic impact. That is precisely why the next phase will depend not only on how many people cross the border, but on whether Hong Kong manages to once again sell the idea of itself as a city that people do not come to only because of proximity, transit, or short shopping trips, but because of the full experience, a multi-day stay, business meetings, culture, gastronomy, and events that once again set it apart from all other Asian competitors.

Sources:

• WTTC / research summary on TravelMole – key recommendations of the Hong Kong recovery report, market share, spending estimate, and business travel (link)
• Breaking Travel News – additional coverage of the WTTC report “Travel & Tourism in Hong Kong SAR, China: Recovery, Gaps, and the Road Ahead” (link)
• Hong Kong Tourism Board – official release on 49.9 million visitors in 2025 and the structure of arrivals by market (link)
• Hong Kong Tourism Board – official release on 9.95 million visitors in January and February 2026 and growth from long-haul markets (link)
• Government of Hong Kong – official tourism overview with data on tourism’s share of GDP, employment, hotel capacity, and development guidelines (link)
• Government of Hong Kong – announcement of the Development Blueprint for Hong Kong's Tourism Industry 2.0 with four strategies and 133 measures (link)
• Hong Kong Tourism Board – annual report 2024/2025 with data on 1.42 million overnight MICE guests and their above-average spending (link)
• Government of Hong Kong – budget announcement for 2026/2027 with an allocation of HK$1.66 billion for the Tourism Board (link)
• OAG – annual review of the world’s busiest airports for 2025, with data on Hong Kong airport capacity growth (link)
• OAG – review of the world’s busiest air routes for 2025, with data showing Hong Kong–Taipei as the leading cross-border route (link)
• Cathay Pacific – 2025 annual results with data on the network’s expansion to more than 100 passenger destinations (link)