Jan 28 (Reuters) - Visitor arrivals to Hong Kong in December

rose 15.1 percent from a year earlier to 4.78 million, data from

the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) showed on Monday.

Visitor arrivals for the whole of 2012 reached about 48.62

million, up 16 percent from 2011. About 72 percent of total

visitor arrivals, or 34.91 million, came from mainland China, up

24.2 percent from 2011.

The Tourism Board said in a statement that the total tourism

expenditure associated to inbound tourism, which amounted to

HK$306.5 billion ($39.53 billion) on a provisional basis, is

16.5 percent higher than the 2011 figure.

Visitor arrivals: (pct change yr/yr):

Dec Nov Oct Sep Aug Jul Jun

15.1 18.7 11.9 18.8 20.5 13.8 19.3

Following is a summary of visitor arrivals by

Country/Territory in December and the whole of 2012:

December 2012 Jan-Dec 2012

No. of Yr/Yr No. of Yr/Yr

Country/Territory Arrivals % growth Arrivals % growth

Mainland China 3,479,541 23.0 34,911,395 24.2

South & Southeast Asia 418,213 -2.8 3,651,803 -2.6

Europe, Africa &

The Middle East 182,217 4.7 2,227,994 1.5

The Americas 138,224 -8.4 1,777,842 -2.4

North Asia 197,431 -13.3 2,333,060 1.2

Taiwan 190,383 10.4 2,088,745 -2.8

Australia, New Zealand &

South Pacific 67,016 -1.2 740,795 -2.3

Macau 104,963 6.8 883,479 4.8

TOTAL 4,777,988 15.1 48,615,113 16.0

($1 = 7.7539 Hong Kong dollars)

(Reporting by Christina Lo in HONG KONG; Editing by G.Ram

Mohan)

Keywords: HONGKONG TOURISTS/

(christina.lo@thomsonreuters.com)(+852 2843 6960)(Reuters Messaging:)(christina.lo.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)

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