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Wynna Wong

Hong Kong residents made nearly 1.8 million trips out of the city during the “golden week” holiday, exceeding the 1.2 million mainland Chinese arrivals.
However, Hongkongers made fewer trips compared with last year.
The latest figures from the Immigration Department showed mainlanders made about 1.2 million trips to the city between October 1 and 7. They made 1 million trips across the longer eight-day holiday from September 29 to October 6 last year, which coincided with the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The department recorded Hongkongers making 1.78 million trips this year, compared with 1.83 million in 2023.
The tourism industry had earlier expressed optimism as there were nearly 1 million mainland arrivals during the first five days of the holiday this year, a 35 per cent increase over last year.
The Travel Industry Authority revealed on Tuesday that 1,050 tour groups visited Hong Kong and 800, or 76 per cent, stayed overnight.
The number of tour groups was 30 per cent higher than last year’s golden week holiday total and 37 per cent more than what was recorded during the seven-day break in 2018.
Director of Immigration Benson Kwok Joon-fung earlier estimated the city would record 300 million arrival and departure trips by the end of 2024, a return to pre-pandemic levels.
The Tourism Board also previously forecast 46 million tourists would visit in 2024, a 35 per cent increase from last year but only 70 per cent of the 65 million arrivals in 2018.
Industry leaders are optimistic over the outlook for the rest of the year, with sentiment bolstered by a recent rebound in the stock market.
Simon Wong Ka-wo, president of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades, said the food and beverage sector did HK$2 billion worth of business over the holiday period, with at least HK$300 million arising in the first three days, satisfying industry expectations.
As for some industry suggestions that Hongkongers had grown tired of heading to mainland cities such as Shenzhen to spend, Wong said it was too early to make a conclusion, but there seemed to be an indication that things had at least “stabilised”.
He said there was continued optimism for the rest of the year, especially for Friday’s Chung Yeung Festival, when Hongkongers sweep family graves, Christmas and New Year.
Hongkongers mark the festival by sweeping family graves to pay their respects.
“We need to see whether the government continues to create and promote large-scale events that not only attract locals to stay, but also bring in more visitors,” Wong said, adding it was important for the industry to come up with creative promotions.
He pointed to the newly born panda twins at Ocean Park and the two adult bears sent from Sichuan province on the mainland as an example.
“They can come up with Sichuan-inspired menus or use ingredients from the region to drum up public consumption,” he said.

While Hongkongers were making fewer trips this year compared with last year, Gary Ng Cheuk-yan, a senior economist with Natixis Corporate and Investment Bank, called for cautious optimism over whether there had been a shift in the trend of residents heading north.
“It is just a matter of the weekend not being long enough, which does not mean that Hong Kong residents have lost interest in outbound tourism,” he said.
While the mainland usually enjoys a week off for National Day, Hongkongers only get one extra day off.
“It is too early to say local attractions and services have improved enough to attract residents to spend more locally,” Ng said.
“There may also be some fatigue after the [trend of] ‘revenge tourism’ to the mainland in the past two years, especially with the expectation that there were crowds everywhere during the golden week.”
For mainland visitors, Hong Kong continued to be a convenient destination, especially for those making spontaneous trips, he said.
The recent surge in wealth and equity prices had improved short-term sentiment, but challenges from lower per capita spending patterns persisted, he added.


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News

Hong Kong

Hong Kong Economy

Hongkongers made 1.78 million trips out of city this year, while 1.2 million mainland Chinese arrivals were recorded


Hongkongers made 1.78 million trips out of city this year, while 1.2 million mainland Chinese arrivals were recorded.


Hong Kong economy