“I am not expecting a miracle – Hong Kong is not cheap to start with – coupled with the weak renminbi, that makes products even more expensive,” said Simon Lee Siu-Po, an honorary fellow at the Asia-Pacific Institute of Business at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
He added that the city also faced keen competition from alternative destinations.
Immigration officials predicted a week before the start of the mainland holiday that the first day would see peak travel at land border crossings, with a million trips in and out of the city on May 1 alone.
The city was expected to have 5.9 million arrivals and departures over the golden week period.
“We shouldn’t be looking only at the quantity of tourists,” Lee said. “The spending patterns have changed.
“On top of this, mainland tourists might not necessarily come to Hong Kong – those who have spending power might choose to go to Hainan or overseas…