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IMMIGRATION AND TOURISM
from other countries in South East Asia. These latter are pre- dominantly overseas Chinese who for one reason or another are anxious to leave their countries of domicile for the stable economic and political atmosphere of Hong Kong. They very often seek to achieve their goal by entering the Colony as visitors or tourists and failing to leave at the end of their permitted period of stay.
The demand for travel documents has continued its upward trend, although it is still below the records set during the disturbances of 1967; likewise the number of applications for naturalisation, which have remained fairly constant at between 50 and 60 a month, as opposed to the record number of 405 in June 1967. This continuing steady flow of applications reflects a growing awareness of the im- portance of nationality, and sense of belonging to Hong Kong. Efforts to reduce the backlog of outstanding naturalisation applica- tions have been largely successful.
TOURISM
Hong Kong's tourist industry goes from strength to strength with many new records set in 1969.
The total number of visitors during the year, excluding military personnel on rest and recreation leave, was 765,213. This was a remarkable 23.7 per cent increase on 1968.
The principal sources, North America and Japan, continued to show good growth rates. Japanese visitors passed the 100,000 mark in October for the first time and the final total was 143,746. This was a 49.1 per cent increase over 1968. The number of American citizens was 211,990, a 33.4 per cent increase.
Asian regional traffic to Hong Kong also showed very good increases as the Hong Kong Tourist Association opened new links with eight Asian areas through an arrangement with the Cathay Pacific Airways offices in Singapore, Western Australia, Thailand, East and West Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Vietnam and Korea.
The percentage of arrivals in Hong Kong by air (92.6 per cent) continued to rise in proportion to sea traffic.