Visitor arrivals to Hong Kong reached 30,423,421 in the first three quarters this year, recording a 16.2 percent year-on-year growth, with Chinese Mainland tourists as the driving force, the city's government-subvented tourism body announced Tuesday.

Releasing the latest figures on Tuesday, the Hong Kong Tourism Board said, in September alone, arrivals climbed up by 16.8 percent to 3,187,091 when compared to the same period last year.

Chinese Mainland was the growth engine of arrivals to Hong Kong in the first three quarters of this year. Cumulatively, arrivals from the market surged by 23.6 percent to exceed 20 million in the first three quarters. Among these, 65.1 percent or around 13.27 million came under the Individual Visit Scheme, a 29.2 percent year-on-year increase. 0 In September alone, Mainland arrivals went up by 28.8 percent to surpass 2 million, with many Mainland visitors coming and joining the Mid-Autumn celebrations in Hong Kong.

Arrivals from the Southeast Asian market also grew steadily in the first three quarters, with approximately 2.26 million arrivals recorded, 9.7 percent more than the same period of 2010.

Benefiting from economic stability and high travel propensity, double-digit growth was achieved by Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand during the first nine months, and by the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand in September.

In North Asia, while the devastating earthquake in March and related incidents have impacted Japanese arrivals in the first nine months, total arrivals from the region registered an increase of 3.2 percent to nearly 1.7 million, contributed by the sturdy growth of the South Korean market.

As for Chinese Taiwan, notwithstanding the effect of cross-strait direct flights, arrivals in the first three quarters remained at a similar level as in the same period last year.

Further in the long-haul markets, the cumulative arrivals were 2 percent higher year-on-year. The best performer was the Americans, whereas arrivals from Europe, Africa and the Middle East, as well as Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific were more or less the same as last year.