Unveiling the second phase of Hong Kong's tourism revival campaign, the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) said yesterday that the SAR could expect its tourism industry to fully recover from the devastation of SARS by early 2004.

"Visitor arrivals have made a much swifter recovery than we could have imagined," Clara Chong, HKTB's executive director, said at the "Go For It Together" forum held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, which was attended by 400 visiting travel trade representatives from around the world.

According to HKTB's latest figures, about 1.3 million tourists visited Hong Kong in July, up 79 per cent from June but down 5 per cent from a year earlier.

Chong added that the recent improvement in Hong Kong's public health environment would have a "positive impact on its tourism reputation as a safe destination".

The "Hong Kong Welcomes You!" campaign, the first stage of which was launched in July, has already brought visitor numbers back to almost the same levels as a year ago, Chong said.

Local travel industry sources said they expected that visitors from the mainland would continue to surge in the coming months following the signing of the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement that included allowing individuals from Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai to visit Hong Kong without joining tour groups.

Three- and four-star hotels are gearing for the expected influx of even more mainland tourists with reservations flooding in and some of them already fully booked. However, Eva Cheng, Hong Kong's tourism commissioner, believed that the hotel room supply should be able to meet the sudden increase of demand.

Cheng said: "We see the surge in demand coming back. On the other hand, we are not looking at a full house in October. I know a lot of hotels still have rooms."

Dan Lee, general manager of Newton Hotel Hong Kong, said that the hotel now has an occupancy rate of more than 80 per cent compared to only 10 per cent during the SARS epidemic in the three months to end of June.

The pick up in tourist arrivals also helps lift the gloom in the food and beverage industry, which was badly hit by the SARS epidemic. David Ng, chairman of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades, said the lifting of restrictions by the mainland on individual travel to Hong Kong had helped the badly battered sector.

(HK Edition 08/19/2003 page7)