An aerial view of the urban scenery of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China Photo: VC

 
The number of visitors from Chinese mainland to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) during the Spring Festival holidays exceeded the number seen six years ago prior to the pandemic, a spokesperson from the HKSAR government said in a statement on Sunday, expecting local tourism to flourish.

A total of 1.44 million trips were recorded during the eight-day holidays, with 1.26 million trips to Hong Kong by the Chinese mainlanders, according to the statement, citing data from Hong Kong's immigration department. 

On average, 157,000 mainlanders went to Hong Kong each day, 25.3 percent higher than the May Day holidays and 14.9 percent higher than the National Day holidays in October. The figure also surpassed the daily average for the same period in 2018. 

Mainland visitors to Hong Kong helped ramp up the earnings of local catering and retail sectors amid the bustling market, Kevin Yeung Yun-hung, secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism of the HKSAR government, was quoted as saying in the statement.

The statement noted that the occupancy rate of hotels reached 90 percent during the first few days of the holidays, while the occupancy rate for the entire holidays exceeded 80 percent with different food and retail outlets also gaining benefits. 

Around 1,980 mainland group tours arrived in Hong Kong during the holidays, according to the statement. 

Yeung said that the government will continue working on elevating the travel experience in Hong Kong in a bid to attract more visitors. 

The HKSAR government has stepped up efforts to facilitate the tourism exchanges with the Chinese mainland. 

Chief Secretary for Administration Eric Chan Kwok-ki said on Saturday that Hong Kong and the mainland is discussing measures to expand the number of mainland cities covered under the Individual Visit Scheme, Hong Kong media outlet RTHK reported.  

The scheme allows residents of these cities to visit Hong Kong in their individual capacity, which is now implemented in 49 mainland cities. 

Chan said that the first group of mainland cities includes first-tier cities, and Hong Kong welcomes residents from second- and third- tier mainland cities to visit the SAR as the Chinese mainland develops rapidly. 

Regarding the implementation of special clearance arrangements at some ports during the holidays, Chan said there were more than 3.9 million inbound and outbound trips were made. A total of 750,000 visitors entered Hong Kong through the ports with 650,000 of them from the Chinese mainland, an increase of 640,000 compared with 2018. 

China's tourism during the Spring Festival holidays witness a boom with 474 million domestic trips made, and the total tourism-induced spending reached 632.69 billion yuan ($88.89 billion), a year-on-year increase of 47.3 percent, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said on Sunday. 

Global Times