The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is gearing up for the Labor Day Golden Week holiday from May 1 to 5, with around 980,000 visitors expected from the Chinese mainland, a 7 percent increase from last year, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said on Sunday.

“We will enhance all supporting facilities and step up crowd management at popular attractions to provide a better experience for travelers and enable industries such as catering and retail to continue benefiting,” Chan said in his weekly blog.

He said the city's unemployment rate has shown a slight improvement, dropping to 3.7 percent in the first quarter of the year, with the accommodation services sector seeing significant gains in employment.

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Hotel bookings indicate that the occupancy rate during this year's Labor Day holiday would be similar to last year's, at about 95 percent, while room rates are 1 percent to 2 percent higher than in previous years, Cheung Ki-tang, director of Hong Kong Zhonglv Weijing International Hotel Management Co Ltd, was quoted as saying in a local media report.

Cheung noted that mid-range hotels had the highest booking rate, reaching 95 percent, and that the proportion of advance hotel bookings has increased this year.

Wong Ka-wo, president of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants & Related Trades, highlighted that the Golden Week holiday has a positive impact on the local catering industry, with this year's turnover expected to increase by about 10 percent compared to previous years.

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Meanwhile, the Transport Department posted on social media on Sunday that the "Park & Fly" service at Hong Kong International Airport, launched last November for passengers who prefer to drive to the airport for international transfers, has received over 7,500 applications and approximately 3,000 vehicle reservations by the end of last month.

The department noted that operations for Guangdong vehicles traveling to Hong Kong are boosting the local economy through increased spending in tourism, retail, and dining, underscoring the growing integration within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

From April 30 to May 3, the Hong Kong section of the High Speed Rail will introduce 13 additional pairs of round-trip trains daily between Hong Kong West Kowloon Station and Shenzhen Futian Station.

Contact the writer at irismuk@chinadailyhk.com