By Irene Meng
February 19, 2024
Being the first Chinese New Year that Hong Kong was fully open to the public after the outbreak of the COVID-19, Hong Kong has attracted many tourists, especially those from the Mainland, with the full resumption of various activities. As the eighth-day “Spring Festival Golden Week” on the Mainland came to an end, overall visitor arrivals to Hong Kong reached the same level as the same period in 2018, while Mainland visitor arrivals exceeded the same level in 2018.
According to the official figures of the Government, during the eight days of the Mainland’s Lunar New Year Golden Week, the Immigration Department (“ImmD”) initially recorded a total of about 1.436 million visitor arrivals in Hong Kong, among which 1.255 million Mainland visitor arrivals visited Hong Kong via various air, sea and land control points, and the average daily number of Mainland visitor arrivals during the eight days of the Golden Week was about 157,000.
“The reason I chose to visit Hong Kong during Chinese New Year was because I learnt from Xiaohongshu that Hong Kong has various large-scale events these days, especially the fireworks display. Plus I live in Shenzhen, which is very close to Hong Kong and makes travelling to and from the city easier,”
–Miss Chen, 19 years old, a year 3 student of Shenzhen University.
The full-scale resumption of traditional Lunar New Year activities in Hong Kong is an important reason for attracting a large number of tourists to Hong Kong. The major Chinese New Year events, including the Night Parade, Fireworks Display, Horse Racing and Chinese New Year Cup, were very popular and created a vibrant atmosphere.
Fireworks Display in Hong Kong on 11 February. @outsider.mgz/ Instagram
Meanwhile, a notable trend emerged as a significant number of individuals chose to explore the diverse attractions within Hong Kong itself, opting for local staycations, such as the West Kowloon Cultural District, the Hong Kong Disneyland, the Ocean Park, the Che Kung Temple and Wong Tai Sin Temple. According to the industry, as quoted by the government, the occupancy rate of hotels in the first few days of the Spring Festival Golden Week reached 90%, and the occupancy rate of hotels during the entire Golden Week was over 80%. It can be seen that the economic impact of the Spring Festival Travel Rush was substantial, injecting vitality into the tourism, hospitality, and retail sector.
“I’ve always heard that the incense at the Wong Tai Sin Temple in Hong Kong is very popular, so I thought I’d take advantage of the New Year period to pray for good luck in the new year,”–Courtney Ding, 27 years old, visitor from Zhejiang.
Courtney Ding, 27, a visitor from Zhejiang, stated her reasons for travelling to Hong Kong during Chinese New Year, yet also said that the number of visitors to Hong Kong this year has exceeded her expectations, the presence of numerous tours largely affected her travelling experience.
While various sectors in Hong Kong are celebrating the return of Hong Kong’s tourism industry to the right track, the current spring festival travel rush has demonstrated that Hong Kong remains attractive to outsiders after COVID-19. However, the HKSAR Government should also learn from the experience and continue to prepare for future co-ordination and enhancement of visitors’ experience in Hong Kong, so as to attract and welcome visitors to Hong Kong.
Reported by Irene Meng
Edited by Noah Huo and Floria Cui