Hongkongers make 1.5 million outbound trips in first 3 days of Easter break, nearly 5 times visitor numbers

City logs 1.51 million outbound trips by residents between Friday and Sunday, well above 330,248 inbound visits by mainland Chinese and others

Number of visitor arrivals drops 35 per cent compared with pre-pandemic 2018 levels, with restaurant industry leader saying high-end establishments hit hardest

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Travellers at West Kowloon station. Outbound trips by residents have risen 16 per cent during this year’s Easter break against 2018 levels. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 2:16pm, 1 Apr 2024Updated: 11:00pm, 1 Apr 2024

Hongkongers made more than 1.5 million outbound trips during the first three days of the Easter holiday, nearly five times the number of arrivals in the same period.

The net outflow, which was well above the level recorded in 2018 before the Covid-19 pandemic, hit the local food and beverage sector hard, with one industry leader reporting a 30 per cent decline in business over the holiday as high-end restaurants suffered the most.

Steven Huen Kwok-chuen, executive director of travel agency EGL Tours, said on Monday that he had observed a significant surge in cross-border tours during the four-day break, adding that the number of Hongkongers on such visits to mainland China had tripled compared with Easter last year.

“Travellers are going in waves not only to Shenzhen or the Greater Bay Area, but the rest of the country,” Huen told a radio show.

He said figures for those heading to Europe and Southeast Asia had doubled compared with the holiday period last year, while trips to popular destination Japan had only climbed by about 10 per cent because of the already high base number from 2023.

Immigration Department data showed that from Friday to Sunday, the city recorded a combined 1.51 million outbound trips made by residents – 700,808 on Friday, 453,946 on Saturday and 358,300 on Sunday.