Chinese golden holiday brings a boost to Hong Kong's economy & HKDL

[HongKongDisneyland]

Hong Kong - China's National Day holiday brought a boost to Hong Kong's economic recovery with Disneyland and the city's flagship airline Cathay Pacific said Tuesday, both reporting an increase in business. Disneyland attendance figures were between 7 and 9 per cent higher than last year over the first few days of the week-long holiday which started October 1, with hundreds of thousands of Chinese crossing the border to celebrate in Hong Kong.
Occupancy rate at the theme park's two hotels was 90 per cent.
Cathay Pacific Airways also reported a good week with revenues and passenger yield for the week ending October 3 at their highest so far this year.
Passenger load reached 83 per cent and on one unspecified day, the airline carried 4,941 premium-class passengers - the highest single-day number for the year.

Source : earthtimes

National Day Golden Week saw crowds at Disneyland up by between 7 percent and 9 percent on last year.
Park chiefs also said the occupancy rate at its two hotels was 90 percent.

The Lantau theme park's managing director, Andrew Kam Min- ho, said he is confident the market will remain buoyant even after the holiday, which ends on Thursday.

He said resources plowed in during the financial downturn have yielded returns, adding that attendances in general have not been too badly affected.

Fears over a human swine flu (H1N1) pandemic did hit the tourism industry from May to July but the numbers began to catch up in August.

He expects - all things being equal - the situation to return to pre-crisis levels by next year.

Kam said mainland tourists were less affected by the global economic downturn than visitors from Southeast Asia, but the drop in air ticket prices helped stimulate travel.

He added that Disney's HK$3.63 billion expansion project will begin by the end of this year.

source : The Standard

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Emerging Markets Will Lead Global Recovery, HSBC Says

Emerging markets will lead a global economic recovery, according to a new purchasing managers’ index produced by HSBC Holdings Plc.

The HSBC Emerging Markets Index jumped to 55.3 in the third quarter from 50.7 in the previous three months, HSBC said in a report released in Istanbul today. That signals the strongest quarterly increase in emerging-market manufacturing and services output since the second quarter of 2008, the bank said. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion.

“Growth in emerging markets is an increasingly important impetus for the world economy,” Stephen Green, HSBC’s group chairman, said in an interview in Istanbul. “What we’re seeing is an historic shift.”

HSBC projects emerging nations will grow 6 percent next year, compared with 1.8 percent in the developed world. The bank’s outlook echoes that of the International Monetary Fund, which last week raised its global growth forecast as demand in Asia pull the world economy out of its worst postwar recession.

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HSBC raised its 2010 economic growth forecast for Asia excluding Japan today. The region will grow 7.6 percent, more than the 6.9 percent predicted earlier, led by faster expansions in China, South Korea and Singapore.

“Growth has roared back in Asia, with domestic demand firing on all cylinders and exports accelerating too,”

source : bloomberg

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HSBC eyes Asian push with chief's HK move

HSBC announced yesterday that chief executive Michael Geoghegan would move from London to Hong Kong, signalling the bank's determination to expand in China and across Asia.

As part of a wider reshuffle, Stephen Green will cede responsibility for group strategy to Mr Geoghegan, though he will remain executive chairman and stressed he had no plans to relinquish full-time duties or to retire.

On Hong Kong, Mr Green told the Financial Times: "This move is both symbolic and practical."

Mr Geoghegan said: "To drive the business, you have to be here - Hong Kong is the gateway to China."

Hong Kong and China together accounted for 40 per cent of HSBC's first-half pre-tax profits and analysts predict this could reach 50 per cent in the next five to 10 years.

"China is our number one priority," Mr Geoghegan said in Hong Kong after sealing the reshuffle at a group board meeting in the city, its first there for three years.

HSBC is convinced that it is uniquely placed to serve growing international trade routes between Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

Source : FT