4.81 million visitors to Hong Kong in January 2026, a year-on-year increase of 1%

Although the Chinese New Year holiday in mainland China in 2026 is from February 15th to 23rd, January is not the traditional peak for travel, but the total number of tourists has still slightly increased, laying a good foundation for the recovery of the tourism market throughout the year. The data structure shows significant differentiation, with 3.64 million mainland tourists, which is basically the same as the same period last year; The number of non mainland tourists reached 1.17 million, a year-on-year increase of 15%, becoming the core driving force for overall growth.

The growth momentum of non mainland markets is strong, and each segmented market has its own highlights. Among them, the long-distance market has shown particularly outstanding performance, with a year-on-year increase of 29% in the number of visitors to Hong Kong, and the recovery momentum of remote customer sources such as Europe, America, Australia, and Canada is evident; The short distance market has grown by 8%, and passengers from surrounding regions such as Southeast Asia continue to return; Emerging markets have achieved a high-speed growth of 46%, and Hong Kong's diversified customer source expansion strategy has shown initial results, with the international customer source structure continuously optimized.

Industry insiders say that the January passenger data confirms that the Hong Kong tourism market is transforming from a "mainland dependent" to a "diversified and balanced" one. With the gradual recovery of international air transport capacity, increased overseas promotion efforts, and the continued increase in Hong Kong's attractiveness in the fields of exhibitions, culture, leisure, etc., non mainland markets are expected to continue to maintain high-speed growth, promoting the Hong Kong tourism market to move towards higher quality recovery and development.