1m potential mainland visitors for golden week

More than a million mainland tourists could be visiting Hong Kong during the eight-day golden week ending on Sunday, says tourism veteran Timothy Chui Ting-pong.

It comes as hundreds of thousands of Hongkongers rushed back yesterday as the city's three-day long weekend ended. As of 9pm, the Immigration Department saw 555,000 travelers entering Hong Kong via various control points.

Among them, some 217,800 people entered via Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau ports, about 77,000 traveled via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, 58,300 people took the high-speed rail and 43,000 flew to Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, some 459,000 mainland tourists visited Hong Kong from the first day of the long holiday on Friday to National Day on Sunday.

Authorities recorded 177,770 mainland visitors on Sunday, the highest figure since the border reopened, but just 70 percent of the figure on the same day in 2018.

Chui, executive director of the Tourism Association, expects the city to see over a million mainland tourists during golden week, adding that those who visited Hong Kong had a good experience, especially at the fireworks show over Victoria Harbour.

But tourist numbers have not resumed to the 2018 level before the social unrest and pandemic, when over 1.5 million mainland tourists visited during golden week.

"Domestic tourism is popular in the mainland now. We also have competition with other tourism markets in Asia, but I think our situation is quite good as we still have over 100,000 tourists visiting Hong Kong every day," Chui said.

"The strong Hong Kong dollar also makes tourists think that they will have higher consumption in Hong Kong and it's more cost effective in the mainland. This is one of the reasons why domestic tourism is popular in [China]."

Limited flight capacity affected people from the northern part of the country from visiting Hong Kong, he added.

Hong Kong has to work on its "in-depth travel" to attract tourists craving cultural experiences, he said.

Mainland tourists flocked to Wong Tai Sin Temple yesterday to offer incense and share photos online.

Chui urged the tourism sector to collaborate with Shenzhen and Macau to organize longer tours and to turn harborfront night bazaars into a long-term venues.

Kowloon East lawmaker Bill Tang Ka-piu called on the administration to extend the duration and scale of the night bazaar at the Kwun Tong Promenade. He said only 40 to 50 stalls are set up at the night bazaar, mostly selling handicrafts, with only three food stalls.

Tang hopes the Kwun Tong bazaar will become a popular tourist attraction as the Kai Tak Sports Park, which will be the main venue for the National Games in 2025, will be completed soon.

A stall owner selling snacks in Wan Chai bazaar said sales were 40 percent higher than expected, and suggested the administration organize more bazaars during the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Meanwhile, 15 malls under Sun Hung Kai Properties saw over a 20 percent rise in businesses and footfall over the Mid-Autumn Festival weekend.

Malls under Sino Group said business during the long weekend was 20 percent more than usual.

Separately, the "half-price" movie day on Sunday attracted about 154,000 people to 64 theaters, with box office receipts of HK$6.39 million.

sophie.hui@singtaonewscorp.com