Hong Kong  - Wealthy Chinese visitors are leading a shopping stampede in Hong Kong, which has seen the average spending of tourists jump to 657 US dollars, the Hong Kong Tourism Board said Thursday.

The average per-capita spending last year of overnight visitors surpassed 5,000 Hong Kong dollars (640 US dollars) for the first time, rising 16.4 per cent over 2006 to 657 US dollars.

Americans spend the most at an average of 737 US dollars each, followed by Europeans (723 US dollars), Australians (717 US dollars) and mainland Chinese (666 US dollars).

Spending by Chinese overnight visitors was up 10.4 per cent year on year, the biggest increase of any group of visitors.

Chinese people were the biggest spenders among same-day visitors, splashing out an average of 235 US dollars each, up almost 20 per cent from their spending in 2006.

People from mainland China, where spending power has rocketed in recent years, were the keenest shoppers among any nationality visiting Hong Kong, devoting 72.6 per cent of their spending to shopping, the Tourism Board found.

Hong Kong expects to welcome a record 30 million visitors in 2008, more than half of them from mainland China, where cross-border travel restrictions were substantially relaxed in 2003. (dpa)