Bookings for HK hotels, attractions surge

Hong Kong hotel bookings by mainland tourists have increased to three times more than usual for the Lunar New Year holiday and bookings for tourist attractions have shot up 10 times, says mainland booking site Meituan.

However, local hotels are seeing limited growth in business for the holiday that begins on Sunday.

Meituan said mainlanders are taking advantage of the lifting of Covid curbs - and Hong Kong is one of the most popular destinations. Searches for train tickets to Hong Kong has gone up more than three times, mostly from travelers from distant cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou.

Meituan's statistics showed bookings of Hong Kong hotels tripled a week after the city reopened its borders.

Bookings were coming from all over China.

A spokesman from the site said mainland tourists are having a longer holiday in the Year of the Rabbit. With proximity in location, transportation and convenience of applying for travel visas, Hong Kong has become one of the popular destinations, he added.

Mainland tourist Song, who took the high-speed rail to Hong Kong on Sunday, said she and her boyfriend could not wait to visit Hong Kong Disneyland again and had booked tickets and accommodation when they heard of the border reopening.

Another tourist, Chen from Guangzhou, said she had done in-depth research before her visit to Hong Kong and would buy souvenirs for her family.

But the reality is far from rosy, local hotels said. A member of the executive committee of the Hong Kong Hotels Association, Victor Chan Kok-wai, told The Standard that 60 percent of hotel rooms are booked, with only 10 percent being tourists from the mainland and overseas.

"The occupancy rate was only 10 percent compared to Lunar New Year 2019, when 90 percent of rooms were for mainland tourists," Chan said.

"As far as I know, people coming to Hong Kong now are mostly for business visits."

He added that mainland tourism remained restrictive as tourists need to take extra time in applying for the exit-entry permit to Hong Kong, while the trade had not received mass bookings from mainland group tours.

He expected Hong Kong to see more mainland tourists by May, during China's Labor Day Golden Week.

"I hope the number of tourists will gradually rise, but it's hard to foresee a clear timeline," Chan said.

He said local hotels faced another hit from dropping demand for staycation as many Hongkongers are heading abroad for the holiday.

Competition among hotels was greater after 60 quarantine hotels returned to normal business, he said.

eunice.lam@singtaonewscorp.com