Visitors walk on Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong on their way to watch the New Year's Eve fireworks display in Victoria Harbour on Dec 31, 2023. (EDMOND TANG / CHINA DAILY)
Industry insiders and lawmakers called for better crowd handling measures during holidays to improve visitors’ experience, after thousands of tourists who came to celebrate the New Year were stranded in the city due to poor traffic arrangements.
Nearly 480,000 people thrilled to the firework display above the Victoria Harbour on Sunday. By 10 pm on Sunday, over 227,000 visitors, mostly from the Chinese mainland, had spent the day in Hong Kong, setting the year’s highest one-day record.
After the countdown celebrations, hordes of mainland tourists were stranded at Prince Edward and Tsim Sha Tsui in the early hours hoping to take cross-boundary buses to the Lok Ma Chau/Huanggang Control Point. Other visitors were forced to spend the night at Sheung Shui MTR station, waiting for the first train to Lo Wu or Lok Ma Chau to back to mainland.
New Territories North legislator Lau Kwok-fan noted that given Hong Kong’s increasing efforts to boost the night economy, more mainland tourists are expected to visit the city. If crowd handling problems during peak hours cannot be addressed, such disorderly situations may continue to arise, he said.
Hong Kong Secretary for Security Tang Ping-keung said the government would work with the mainland authorities to extend the operating hours of some control points
Lau added that consideration could be given to extending the operating hours of the MTR to 2 am during long holidays to help cross-border travelers. He also suggested the Hong Kong government communicate with the mainland in advance to extend the operating hours of Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau — the busiest border crossings — when necessary.
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Freeman Cheung Kim-ping, vice-chairman and secretary of Hong Kong Guangdong Boundary Crossing Bus Association, pointed out that road closures in Tsim Sha Tsui for crowd control greatly affected the operation of cross-border buses.
He said he has already suggested the government should review road closure measures, and expressed the hope that the authorities can set up special routes for cross-border buses during holidays to improve their efficiency.
Efforts can also be made to study the possibility of setting up temporary stations in locations near highways, which would allow cross-border buses to avoid narrow and crowded roads and minimize the impact of road closures, he said.
Hong Kong Secretary for Security Tang Ping-keung said the government would work with the mainland authorities to extend the operating hours of some control points.
Hong Kong member of the Standing Committee of National People’s Congress (NPCSC) Starry Lee Wai-king noted that she had also put forward a proposal to the nation’s General Administration of Customs during a meeting of the NPCSC to increase the number of ports with 24-hour clearance.
She said she is confident that the extension of opening hours at more checkpoints will be implemented during the Lunar New Year period, which starts on 10 Feb.
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Over the recent three-day New Year holiday from Saturday to Monday, Shenzhen also saw remarkable growth in tourist arrivals and revenue.
According to official statistics, the number of domestic tourists in Shenzhen amounted to 2.37 million over the three-day period, surging 92.26 percent year-on-year. The city generated 1.65 billion yuan ($231 million) in revenue from domestic tourism, doubling 2022’s figure.
Local tourists took up the majority, accounting for 67.33 percent of Shenzhen’s total. Twenty percent of the tourists came from other places in the Pearl River Delta region, while 8.17 percent travelled to Shenzhen from other provinces.
The tourists spent more than half of their money on food and shopping during the holiday, with each consuming 697 yuan on average.
According to a report by online travel agency Trip.com Group, outbound travel orders of Shenzhen residents soared 260 percent over the New Year holiday compared with the same period a year earlier. Hong Kong, Japan, Macao were the most popular destinations for outbound travelers from Shenzhen.
(Intern Xu Zhujingqiu contributed to the story)
