An estimated 5.65 million visitors are expected to cross the border during the National Day 'golden week' holiday, a 17 per cent rise on last year.
However, tourism experts warn the immigration hardware has not kept up with the increase in visitor numbers, which will mean long queues.
About 2.09 million passengers, around 299,000 a day, are expected to pass through the Lo Wu border checkpoint, the Immigration Department said. The busiest day will be the Chung Yeung Festival on October 5, when about 198,000 people are expected to leave Hong Kong as 180,000 arrive in the city.
Lok Ma Chau and the Shenzhen Bay border checkpoint will each see more than 90,000 visitors. Up to 400 tour groups could arrive in the city every day during the week, the Travel Industry Council has predicted.
While the government vowed to minimise the number of staff taking leave and to add counters and kiosks for immigration clearance, tour guides predicted visitors would have to spend about four hours in queues at land border checkpoints. They want more permanent counters to be established in the long term.
Simon Hau Suk-kei, chairman of the Hong Kong Inbound Tour Operators Association, said mainland visitors usually faced long queues at the border during holidays. 'For peak seasons like the May 1 or the October 1 'golden week' holiday, we have experienced queues of up five to six hours at immigration,' he said. 'Many tourists were very angry.'