HK sees more than 625,000 visitors from the mainland during Labour Day ‘golden week’ holiday

More than 1.71 million travelers poured into Hong Kong during the mainland’s five-day  Labour Day “golden week” holiday that ended Wednesday, with some 625,000 - or around 37 percent of them being mainland tourists.

Immigration Department figures showed that the proportion of mainland travelers this year has dropped when compared to pre-pandemic times, which in 2019, up to 63 percent of the incoming travelers were from the mainland.

The Travel Industry Authority said 453 mainland tour groups have registered their trip to Hong Kong during the ‘golden week,’ involving around 13,000 tourists.

Executive director of the Authority, Annie Fonda, said they have arranged for patrols at tourist hotspots and have not received any complaints during the holiday. She also noted that the number of tour groups entering the city was less than in previous years.

Commenting on dining arrangements for the tour groups, the executive director said restaurants were not under the Authority’s scope of work, which she called on restaurants to fulfil their social duty to minimize the impact on communities, or they could risk being regulated in the future - including limiting the number of tourists at restaurants.