China News Service, February 20. According to Hong Kong's "Sing Tao Network", the eight-day Golden Week holiday during the Spring Festival has given Hong Kong's tourism market strong recovery momentum in the Year of the Dragon. An average of nearly 240 tourist groups visited Hong Kong every day, more than in 2019. There are an average of more than 170 groups per day, and more than 50% of the mainland groups visit Hong Kong. Most of the tourists are from cities in the Greater Bay Area.
Yeung Suk-fen, Director-General of the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong, said that during this year’s Lunar New Year holiday, the number of tourists and tour groups visiting Hong Kong exceeded expectations, which satisfied the industry. It was earlier expected that 200 tourist groups would arrive in Hong Kong every day. In the end, more than 1,980 mainland groups arrived, with an average of nearly 240 groups per day, involving 66,000 tourists, which was more than the daily average of more than 170 groups in 2019.
Yang Shufen added that the peak periods for tourist group arrivals are on the second, third and fourth day of the Lunar New Year, with more than 300 groups arriving every day. This is believed to be related to the fact that Hong Kong holds a number of attractive events during the Lunar New Year.
During the Lunar New Year, a fireworks show is staged at the Golden Bauhinia Square in Hong Kong. Image source: Hong Kong Sing Tao Network
Yang Shufen said that more than 50% of mainland groups visiting Hong Kong during the Spring Festival were "one-day tours", and most of the tourists came from cities in the Greater Bay Area. She revealed that the per capita tour fee for a "one-day tour" is about 200 (Hong Kong dollars, the same below) to 300 yuan, a slight increase of 50 yuan compared with 2019.
Tse Kam-ting, founding president of the Hong Kong Inbound Tour Operators Association, said that many group tourists pay attention to cost-effective shopping and buy daily necessities in Mong Kok, while independent travelers are more inclined to buy famous brands. He suggested that the SAR government should actively keep up with the general development trend of the mainland and implement relevant customs clearance facilitation measures such as "one visa, multiple entries" before the peak summer vacation season this year, so as to further promote mutual benefit between the mainland and Hong Kong.
According to reports, from February 10 to 17 (the first day to the eighth day of the Lunar New Year), the Immigration Department of the Hong Kong SAR Government initially recorded approximately 1.436 million tourists visiting Hong Kong. Among them, there were 1.255 million mainland tourists, and the eight-day average daily arrivals were 25.3% and 14.9% higher than those during the Labor Day holiday and National Day holiday in 2023, respectively, and exceeded the average daily arrivals during the same period in 2018.