Some 43,000 mainland tourists welcomed as long Labour Day holidays kick-start

Hong Kong welcomed some 43,000 mainland tourists on the first day of the Labour Day golden week holidays despite stormy weather and heavy rain on Wednesday morning, according to the Immigration Department. 

As of 10 am, over 144,000 arrivals and departures were logged, including some 43,000 inbound mainland tourists and 48,000 outbound Hongkongers. 

Over 76,000 inbound tourists were recorded in total. 

The busiest border point was the Lo Wu port with about 18,000 travelers, followed by the Lok Ma Chau port and the HK-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. 

Director of Immigration Benson Kwok Joon-fun expected this morning to be the peak of mainland tourists swarming into the city but believes that their journeys were delayed due to the heavy rain since yesterday. 

Kwok said the department has fielded about 200 extra staffers at major border points, saying the manpower would be sufficient to handle the increasing volumes of tourists. 

He forecasts the border points won’t be crowded tonight since tourists rarely come to the city in the evening.