Has cross-border high-speed rail created new pool of visitors to Hong Kong as ‘golden week’ arrivals jump 20 per cent?

Data shows traffic at major checkpoints largely unchanged over seven-day holiday, but visitor numbers rise to 1.5 million

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For the week-long break, which started on National Day on October 1, on average about 73,000 commuters took the rail link each day. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 9:30am, 9 Oct 2018Updated: 9:39am, 9 Oct 2018

Hong Kong’s recently opened high-speed rail link had little impact on the number of people using other cross-border transport services over the “golden week” public holiday, while a 20 per cent jump in the number of mainland Chinese arrivals suggests it may have created a new pool of visitors.

But critics said the visitors were largely drawn by the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link’s newness and warned it would run into deficit if it failed to boost cross-border travel during low-turnout weekdays.

From its launch on September 23 to the end of the month, an average of 46,600 passengers passed through the immigration checkpoint at Hong Kong’s West Kowloon terminal daily.

The express rail link started operating on September 23. Photo: Xinhua

For the week-long break, which started on National Day on October 1, on average about 73,000 commuters took the rail link each day, 8.7 per cent below the government’s conservative estimate of 80,100 daily. On Friday, the number hit a high of 80,020.

However, government data showed cross-border traffic at major checkpoints was not adversely affected by the rail link over the holiday while the number of mainland visitors coming to Hong Kong soared 20 per cent to 1.5 million, compared with 1.27 million during the same period last year.