The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) said that provisional tourism arrivals for 2009 stand at 29.6 million.
Thus Hong Kong seems to be on the march again with nearly 30 million visitors, an increase of 0.3% on 2008.
In 2008 Hong Kong was contending with the global economic slowdown and a regional outbreak of the H1N1 virus (swine flu).
Now it is full speed ahead again. One important factor, according to the HKTB, are multiple individual visits by residents of Shenzhen, in mainland China, which boosted inbound tourism from the city.
For 2010 the general feeling is optimism.