Tourist arrivals reach to 2.35 million in August, up 11.25 over the same month last year, Hong Kong Tourism Board said yestoday.

The number in the first eight months grew to 16.74 million, up 10.4% on the same period last year.

Of the August arrivals, 66.7% were classified as overnight visitors while the remaining 33.3% were same-day arrivals.

Arrivals from the Mainland rose 11.8% to 1,364,825. Of them, 785,720, or 57.6%, travelled to Hong Kong under the Individual Visit Scheme, 27.4% more than last year.

The majority of Hong Kong's regional markets also showed increases. Arrivals from Taiwan grew 6.5%; South & Southeast Asia 14.4%; North Asia 16.7%; Europe, Africa & the Middle East 12.9%; the Americas 2.8%, and Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific 1.2%.

However, some individual markets fell, such as Thailand (-0.9%) and the US (-0.7%).