Easter may not bring much cheer to city
Hong Kong’s tourism industry does not expect a happy Easter despite predictions that visitors and residents will make 11 million trips in and out of the city over the holiday weekend and the Ching Ming Festival.
The department said yesterday, after discussions with mainland Chinese counterparts, it expected about 9.5 million trips would be made through land checkpoints between Thursday and April 7.
About 1.5 million more people are expected to depart or arrive by land and sea.
Officials said the number of outbound people using land border checkpoints would account for 601,000 trips on Friday and 589,000 inbound journeys next Monday as Hongkongers returned.
The department said it expected heavy traffic, with about 207,000 people using the Lo Wu crossing, 169,000 at the Lok Ma Chau Spur Line and 143,000 via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge every day over the 10-day period.
But Caspar Tsui Ying-wai, executive director of the Federation of Hong Kong Hotel Owners, said occupancy had dropped in early March after the Lunar New Year holiday and the sector was not necessarily looking for a rebound over Easter.
“Easter, like Christmas, is not a public holiday on the mainland,” he said. “So we primarily rely on tourists from other surrounding cities, such as those in Southeast Asia.”
But he added other events would help bolster the industry.
“We have some auctions happening in ‘Art March’, followed by Art Basel and Art Central, as well as the Hong Kong Sevens [rugby] tournament,” Tsui said.
“We also have financial summits coming up. All these events, taking place around this period, will help us boost [occupancy].”
Easter Sunday falls on March 31 and the Ching Ming Festival, the traditional grave-sweeping day to honour ancestors, is on April 4.
Sara Leung Fong-yuen, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Tourism Industry Employees General Union, said tour groups to the city during Easter would remain at levels similar to last year.
“The presence of European and American tourists is relatively weaker in the Hong Kong market, so a sudden increase in tour groups from these regions is unlikely,” she said. “However, the overall number of tourists has been steadily increasing, albeit at a slow pace.”
Leung added she was sceptical about the effectiveness of the government’s efforts to attract tourists and expand the visitor base through increased events and displays of public art.
“It is very unlikely to attract tourists specifically to Hong Kong unless we organise special events or activities that are highly appealing and exclusive to convince them to purchase flight tickets and visit,” she said.
Ray Chui Man-wai, president of catering body the Institute of Dining Art, said restaurateurs were braced for a drop of 10 to 15 per cent in business compared with last year.
“It was quite good last Easter as it was right after the border reopened and people were willing to go out and spend money,” he said. “But after the first quarter last year, the economy had not improved at all while people opted to spend their weekends and holidays elsewhere.”
The latest estimated figures for Easter and the Ching Ming Festival were 46 per cent higher than the department’s forecast of 7.5 million trips made by Hongkongers and tourists during the nine-day Lunar New Year holiday between February 9 and 17.
Government statistics showed that 2.6 million residents left Hong Kong during the Lunar New Year period and about 1.5 million visitors arrived.
About 1.3 million of the inbound travellers – 86.4 per cent – were from the mainland.
The Tourism Board has predicted 46 million people will visit Hong Kong in 2024, 35 per cent more than last year, but still only 70 per cent of the 65 million who flocked to the city in 2018.
The government earlier set aside HK$1.09 billion to bolster tourism with plans to offer more cultural experiences and major events designed to cater to a new generation of travellers.
The city recently hosted the first LIV golf tournament. It is being followed by “Art March”, which includes a three-day high-profile International Cultural Summit, as well as Art Basel and Art Central.
Rail giant the MTR Corporation will boost services on most of its lines over the holiday period, including the Island, Tsuen Wan, South Island and Disneyland Resort routes, at peak times, with 300 extra train trips scheduled to cope with demand.