Mainlanders drive up Hong Kong visitor count

Hong Kong's visitor arrivals surged to pre-SARS levels, climbing almost 300% year on year in May to a record 1.69 million as mainland tourists swarmed into the special administrative region. The Hong Kong Tourism Board said there were 972,837 mainland visitors, up 78.8% from the same period in 2002 and 297% from 2003. More a third of them arrived during the Golden Week holiday.