Hongkongers make over 705,000 trips out of city on first day of Easter holiday
Good food and affordable fun high on agenda, as number of residents leaving on Thursday just before Good Friday rises 15 per cent against last year
Hong Kong’s border crossings were packed on the first day of the Easter holiday, with residents making 705,863 outbound trips as they headed off seeking good food and affordable activities.
Residents had made more than 1.3 million trips out of the city by Friday evening, taking into account the 605,240 outbound trips the day before, according to the Immigration Department.
The number of residents leaving on the Thursday just before Good Friday rose by 15 per cent compared with last year, or by 44.5 per cent against the 2018 pre-pandemic figure, the department’s data showed.
Catering and retail representatives said they expected a decline in business during the holiday period, as official data showed the number of visitor arrivals on Friday as of 9pm was just 16 per cent of the figure for departing residents.
Undersecretary for Commerce and Economic Development Bernard Chan Pak-li on Friday assured local businesses that residents “still had the purchasing power” despite the trend of Hongkongers heading across the border to spend.
Mainland Chinese cities were the most popular destinations. On Friday, the Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau Spur Line checkpoints were the busiest, while traffic was congested at the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge.
In the morning, thousands of travellers flocked to the West Kowloon station departure gates for high-speed rail services, with the winding queue taking up more than half of the hall.