Hong Kong people’s love for affordable, different travel experiences on the Chinese mainland was still evident on Monday — the last day of the four-day Easter holiday break.
As of 4pm, the city had recorded 555,000 passenger trips, with 310,000 of them being inbound and 244,000 outbound.
The city saw more than two million departure trips between Friday and Sunday. They were among 3.77 million inbound and outbound trips that passed through the special administrative region’s land, air and sea checkpoints during the period. The number of outbound trips made by local residents during the first three days of this year’s Easter holidays reached 1.62 million — a nine-percent increase over the same period last year.
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Friday saw a record 724,316 Hong Kong residents heading for the mainland since the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 1.25 million crossings were recorded at all the cross-boundary ports, with outbound trips through the three key land checkpoints — Shenzhen Bay, Futian and the West Kowloon High-Speed Rail Station — hitting post-pandemic highs. Queues of vehicles were also seen at the Hong Kong - Zhuhai - Macao Bridge. At 2pm, the queue was about 500 meters long, with a wait of around 40 minutes to pass the bridge port. At 6pm, the Hong Kong police suggested residents look for other ports or transport routes, after the Shenzhen Bay checkpoint was bombarded with inbound passengers.
Many Hong Kong residents had begun their vacation a day earlier to avoid the expected congestion at various ports. On Thursday — a day before the Easter break — 605,240 residents left the city, almost doubling the number for the previous day.
The Immigration Department had estimated that more than six million passenger trips would be made over the four public holidays, with Monday expecting to see 618,000 inbound passengers.
Travelers are advised to plan their trips to avoid peak hours.
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The robust surge in consumer spending on the mainland has led to lukewarm business sentiment in the SAR.
Simon Wong Ka-wo, president of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades, described the local scene as “very quiet” during the Easter break after striking a pessimistic note by predicting that his earlier estimate of a 25-percent drop for local businesses from that of a typical weekend would be sharper at 30 percent.
He said high-end catering would bear the brunt, with a steep drop in business of between 40 and 50 percent.
To encourage local spending, “Coffee Hong Kong 2025” was staged in the city for the first time on the sprawling lawn of the West Kowloon Cultural District during the holidays, incorporating the internationally acclaimed Tokyo Coffee Festival. It attracted residents who have opted for to stay in Hong Kong.
