An undated photo shows a shop in Hong Kong.(File photo)   Chinanews, Hong Kong, Feb. 25 – Visitors from China's mainland to Hong Kong had increased by ten times to 6.6 million people by the end of 2006 since Chinese mainlanders were permitted to travel to Hong Kong as individual tourists in 2003, said Li Guodong, director of the Immigration Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, on February 24.

 

Sources from the Hong Kong tourism industry reveal that Hong Kong gained 24 billion yuan worth of profit from mainland tourists last year, according to the Hong Kong-based Wen Wei Pao.

 

Normally nearly 40 percent of the mainland tourists experience day trips in Hong Kong, consequently retailing industry is the biggest beneficiary.

 

Female cosmetics sell fairly hot. A spokesman of a chain makeup shop in Hong Kong said about 10 percent of their customers were from the mainland, and they were quite "generous". "Some customers from the mainland even swept over 10,000 yuan worth of the cosmetics on one shop counter," he said, adding that mostly these customers bought them not only for themselves, but also for their family members and friends.

 

Incomplete statistics show that mainland tourists contributed to 60 percent of the consumption of Hong Kong during the Spring Festival holiday.