The Travel Industry Council expects Hong Kong to welcome some 800,000 mainland tourists during this year’s Labor Day Golden Week holidays, as well as up to 28,000 travelers from some 800 guided tours.
The council’s executive director Fanny Yeung Shuk-fan believes that mainlanders are likely to opt for short-haul trips and the city will be one of the popular destinations since there are only five holidays in the mainland this year.
She expects the first two days will peak as tourists pour into Hong Kong with about 220 guided tours a day – slightly higher than weekdays, followed by about 160 tours a day for the rest of the holidays.
She also believes that the number of tourists from Qingdao and Xi’an will increase by 50 percent during the golden week holidays after the extension of the Individual Visit Scheme.
Yeung said the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau convened an inter-departmental meeting yesterday and…