Mainland Chinese make only day trips to Hong Kong with focus on saving cash as city loses allure to southern rivals

Tourists are coming over border armed with social media suggestions on how to see city’s key attractions in under 24 hours while spending as little as 300 yuan

Strong Hong Kong dollar is putting city at disadvantage with mainland neighbours, where luxury goods can be had for cheaper

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Tourists line up for lunch outside a restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui. Photo: Yik Yeung-man

Published: 10:26pm, 13 Feb 2024Updated: 11:46am, 14 Feb 2024

Hong Kong has lost some of its glamour for mainland travellers amid heightened competition from other Chinese cities over prices and number of attractions, industry commentators have said, as many visitors make only day trips to the financial hub during the Lunar New Year holiday.

According to preliminary figures from the Immigration Department, about 471,490 mainland visitors came to the city over the first three days of the holiday, or about 76 per cent of the 623,521 over the same period in 2019.

Mainland Chinese tourists were long considered big spenders keen to take advantage of the city’s selection of luxury goods and duty-free shopping, but since the border fully reopened last year, they have been splashing out less on high-end goods and instead seeking out cheaper experiences.

“Hong Kong’s attractiveness has overall weakened,” said Dicky Yip Chi-wai, the president of the Hong Kong Tourism Practitioners’ Union. “It used to be a shopping paradise, but now people can buy the same things on the mainland.”

On mainland social media platforms Xiaohongshu, terms such as “Hong Kong in a Day” and “Tourist Special Forces ” have gone viral, with posts containing the former amassing more than 54 million views. Photo: Sun Yeung

After the Covid-19 pandemic, he observed a rise in day trips where tourists would arrive in the city early in the morning and head back to the mainland that same night.