Hong Kong - Hong Kong expects to welcome 31 million visitors this year, 1.5 million or five percent more than in 2009, tourism officials said Wednesday.

Most of the extra visitors are forecast to come from mainland China, which already accounts for around 60 percent of all visitors to the city of seven million people.

The Hong Kong Tourism Board said it expects the number of mainland visitors to increase by 7.5 percent to 19.3 million, compared to an increase of 1.7 percent from the rest of the world.

The optimistic prediction follows better-than-expected numbers for 2009 when a record 29.6 million people visited the former British colony, a 0.3 per cent increase from 2008.

The number of visitors from mainland China has soared in recent years since border restrictions were eased. - Sapa-dpa