Tourists spending in Hong Kong reached a new high record at 209.98 billion HK dollars last year, up 32.7 percent from 2009, the Hong Kong Tourism Board announced Sunday.

Tourists from the Chinese mainland continued to have the highest per capita spending for both overnight and same-day, in- town visitors, respectively at 7,453 HK dollars and 2,356 HK dollars, it said.

The board's chairman James Tien said Hong Kong welcomed 36.03 million visitors last year, up 21.8 percent from 2009.

According to statistics, per capita spending of overnight visitors rose 16.6 percent to 6,728 HK dollars, while that of same- day, in-town visitors rose by 2.7 percent to 1,846 HK dollars. That reflected the rapid economic growth in the mainland and the greater consumption ability in the region.

Total spending by overnight visitors amounted to 135.14 billion HK dollars, up 38.4 percent. All market regions achieved remarkable growth in overnight per capita spending, with an increase of 30 percent or more for long-haul regions and 27.8 percent for North Asia. For same-day, in-town visitors, total spending reached 29.35 billion HK dollars.

Shopping took up the largest share of the visitor spending, up 33.5 percent year-on-year to 109.59 billion HK dollars.

Tien expected visitor arrivals to swell to 39.64 million this year, provided the global economy remains stable and the mainland maintains its robust economic growth.

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