Hong Kong's tourist arrivals grew to 2.35 million in August, up 11.2 percent year-on-year, said the Tourism Board of Hong Kong Monday.

Growth in the first eight months brought the total arrivals to more than 16.74 million, up 10.4 percent on the same period last year, the department said.

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

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

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

However, some individual markets fell, such as Thailand (down 0.9 percent) and the United States (down 0.7 percent).

(Xinhua News Agency September 26, 2006)