“There will be close to 1 million residents leaving Hong Kong during this period. This will obviously affect catering and retail business,” he added.

The industry leader also called for the city to host more mega events, similar to last week’s Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament, to help attract more visitors to the city.

Federation of Hong Kong Hotel Owners executive director Caspar Tsui Ying-wai, a former government minister, said the city was unlikely to experience any spike in the number of mainland tourists since Easter was not a public holiday there.

While he declined to provide figures for the number of hotel bookings over the break, Tsui said the industry was instead looking to Labour Day on May 1, when travellers from across the border could enjoy an extended weekend in the city.

Timothy Chui Ting-pong, executive director of the Hong Kong Tourism Association, said more than half of hotel bookings over the Easter weekend were by mainland visitors and he expected around 50 tour groups on average per day.

“The booking situation has indeed improved, but we are not fully booked,” he said.

Chui added that luxury hotels and those at the city’s theme parks were popular among residents on staycations.

According to Booking.com, one of the world’s largest online travel service providers, Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel was fully booked for the break, while Disney Explorers Lodge was offering double rooms for three nights from Friday for around HK$8,000 (US$1,019) to HK$12,000.​

Meanwhile, industry insiders said overseas visitors continued to be a minority among hotel guests, months after Hong Kong began rolling back its coronavirus curbs at the end of last year.

Kenny Sham Ho-ki, general manager of Hong Kong travel booking platform Klook, said 90 per cent of local hotel reservations were made by residents, with the remainder comprising mainland and foreign visitors.

He added that Easter break reservations made last month accounted for nearly 25 per cent of April’s hotel bookings.

Anita Chan, general manager of the Dorsett Wan Chai, Cosmo Hotel and Dorsett Mong Kok, said the three properties had “high occupancy” rates, with many guests staying more than five nights.

“The majority of guests coming in for Easter are tourists from mainland China and Hongkongers on staycation,” she said.

“We’ve also seen a small pickup from Southeast Asia and Taiwan as short-bound markets continue to lead the recovery for Hong Kong since it opened up.”

According to official figures, the average daily number of mainland tourists arriving in Hong Kong was 63,000 last month, less than half the 150,000 recorded before the pandemic in 2019. The city logged 56 million visitors that year.

Tsui and Wong warned that both their industries were struggling with staff shortages, with the former minister saying some hotels could not operate at maximum capacity because they only had 60 to 65 per cent of the necessary employees.

Over in Lan Kwai Fong, restaurateurs in the entertainment district expressed mixed expectations about business during the holiday break.

Joshua Chu Chai-sheng, manager of Frank’s Social Club, said bookings at his restaurant for the Easter holiday had reached around 80 per cent of capacity.

The 41-year-old added that business had increased by about 30 per cent from a year earlier, while around a quarter of customers were tourists.

Ryan Tong King-chun of Yum Yum Goose & Co restaurant said it had benefited from the arrival of tourists, especially those from the mainland, but that he expected business to slow over the coming holiday.

“I am more excited about Labour Day in May,” he said.