Hong Kong's Kai Tak scores peak passenger throughput dayHong Kong's Kai Tak scores peak passenger throughput day

This surpassed the previous high of 11,099 passengers in a day on Dec. 21, 2015.

'Our operations continue to mature and improve, and the team is now well capable of handling even our busiest throughput days. We are glad to see both our local source market and the visiting fly-cruise market delivering high passenger loads for our cruise line customers,' said Jeff Bent, managing director of Worldwide Cruise Terminals.

The number of Hong Kong people cruising from Hong Kong so far this year is double that of 2016, with the year-end total likely to exceed 300,000, making this one of Asia’s largest source markets.

After record occupancies throughout the year, in 2017, Kai Tak Cruise Terminal will handle more than 700,000 revenue passengers. Hong Kong in total will likely see more than 800,000 revenue passengers.

According to the UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, Hong Kong people are the world’s top per capita travel spenders, at US$3,280 in 2016. This is more than triple the second place country’s US$1,039 per capita.

Hong Kong is also the world’s 10th top outbound travel market in terms of overall spending.

Cruise Lines International Association's 'Asia Cruise Trends 2017' report prepared by CHART Management Consultants found 16.7% of Hong Kong cruisers sailed on a luxury line, the highest percentage after Japan. Also, a substantial 15.6% of Hong Kong cruisers took fly-cruises outside Asia, making it one of Asia's top three fly-cruise source markets and a key venue for lines to establish brand loyalty and repeat business.

Hong Kong remains a highly attractive destination, and the most-visited for mainland Chinese, hosting 43m of China’s 135m total outbound trips in 2016. This year’s growing visitor numbers are likely to see a further increase when the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and high-speed rail connection to China’s domestic network open in 2018. This will put 270m people within a four-hour train ride.