Are Hong Kong’s hotel prices pushing mainland Chinese tourists away? 110,000 leave city on first day of ‘golden week’ holiday

More than 110,000 visitors from mainland China left Hong Kong on the first day of the “golden week” holiday, making up two-thirds of the total number of arrivals from across the border during the same period, with tourists citing soaring hotel prices and the convenience of high-speed rail services for their short stays.

Immigration Department figures on Sunday showed 165,669 travellers crossed the border into Hong Kong on Saturday, the start of the mainland’s five-day national holiday, while 110,547 departed the city as of midnight, suggesting that many might have decided not to stay overnight.

Mainland tourists made up 85 per cent of the total 193,297 inbound travellers on Saturday. Taking into account the movements of Hong Kong residents, the city’s net outflow exceeded its inflow by 52,337.

Hotel room rates saw a five-fold surge ahead of the long holiday, despite the number of bookings remaining below pre-pandemic levels.

An earlier Post check found room rates for several hotels on the same online travel platform rose between 170 and 540 per cent for May 1, compared with the week before on April 24.

Shenzhen tourists Chen Hao and Ma Chang, both 19-year-old university students visiting Hong Kong for the first time, said they would not stay overnight, as they had made other plans with family and friends back home.

They said high hotel prices and the high-speed rail making it easier to cross the border factored into their decision not to spend the night in the city.

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“We don’t want to stay for a few days, as it’s not a good use of money,” Chen said.

They were among eager patrons waiting in line on Sunday to enter the Hong Kong Palace Museum, a new flagship attraction launched last year, at the West Kowloon Cultural District.

The pair said they would do some sightseeing and shopping nearby, with plans to buy skin care products, before returning home at 8pm.

Civil engineer Onion Ru, 26, and his girlfriend said they each paid 6,000 yuan for a three to four-day tour package to the city, despite soaring hotel prices.

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“We are from Shanghai, so it would be inconvenient for us do a trip where we returned on the same day, so we decided we will just stay for a few more days,” Ru said.

The five-day golden week holiday runs from Saturday to May 3 on the mainland. It is the first extended break since the country dropped its Covid-19 travel restrictions.

Immigration authorities in the city had earlier estimated about 4.61 million people, including locals and international visitors, would arrive in or depart Hong Kong, with 85 per cent passing through land crossings from Saturday to next Thursday.

The Travel Industry Council estimated 600,000 mainlanders would visit Hong Kong in the seven days from Saturday to Friday , with individual travellers comprising 80 per cent of the figure.

The Travel Industry Authority received 392 registrations for mainland inbound tours visiting Hong Kong from Saturday to Friday , involving about 12,000 visitors from across the border.

On Saturday, 136 of these tours arrived in Hong Kong, including about 3,900 visitors.