A flurry of positive numbers has driven up consumer confidence faster than expected. Reports from the government, tourism board, airport authority, airlines and hotel association all show Hong Kong rebounding faster than expected from the impact of Sars.

At a recent international conference, Airport Authority chairman, Dr Victor Fung said passenger numbers had already reached 80% of pre-Sars levels, and that business travel had fully recovered.

"Hong Kong, the preferred destination, is returning to the world's travellers' flight path," Dr Fung said. "We are seeing some very encouraging results. At this early stage, the rate of recovery has been faster than even we anticipated."

Hong Kong Hotel Association executive director, James Lu, said hotels were expecting to be 60 percent full in July and to reach 90 percent occupancy by the end of the year. Mr Lu said the majority of visitors were business travellers making up for time lost during the March and April.

Cathay Pacific passenger numbers have surged over the past six weeks. June saw an 88 percent increase on the previous month and general manager Alan Wong said the airline would operate a full schedule by September.

A swift resumption of business travel also prompted other airlines to quickly resume full services to Hong Kong. The US airline, United Airlines is increasing its San Francisco service to a daily frequency and four weekly flights to Chicago will be restored.

Tourists, although slower off the mark than business travellers, still returned to Hong Kong in force. Leisure visitors surged 70 percent in June, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board.

Hong Kong's exports, which suffered only a mild impact from Sars, continued to show bullish growth, spurred on by impressive growth on the Chinese mainland. Exports on the mainland grew by 34 percent in the fast half of the year, pushing Hong Kong's exports up 14 percent during the same period.

All this good news led to an unexpected rise in consumer confidence. Defying the global economic downturn and the impact of Sars, a MasterCard survey registered consumer confidence at 23.2, compared with 21.3 six months ago.

Investors seem similarly impressed with Hong Kong's speedy revival. Following the peaceful march on July 1 the stock market surged 2.6 percent and has since reached seven month highs. Click Financial sector surges ahead

Related link:
Hong Kong Airport Authority  www.hkairport.com