Mainlanders flooding Hong Kong this Golden Week

Mainlanders traveling in groups or singly are expected to increase by about 10% during China's National Day Golden Week holiday that began Sunday.

The semi-annual holiday consists of seven continuous days and is primarily intended to boost domestic tourism and improve China’s standard of living.

Hong Kong’s Travel Industry Council estimates the number of mainland tour groups visiting Hong Kong to rise by some 10% during Golden Week. It said some 400 tour groups are expected to arrive in Hong Kong each day during the holiday compared to 360 in 2011.

Executive Director Joseph Tung said more individual travelers were also expected since travel along highway toll roads in the mainland are free of charge during the period, making it less expensive for people to drive to Shenzhen and from there to Hong Kong.

Tung, however, said visitors were expected to spend less on average this year: about HK$6,000 per person compared with up to HK$8,000 in previous years as a result of the hard times battering both Hong Kong and the mainland.

Visitor arrivals to Hong Kong in August rose 21% year-on-year to 4.9 million persons. Total visitors during the first eight months of the year rose 16% to 31.6 million persons compared to the same period in last year.

Per capita spending of visitors also rose. Spending by overnight visitors increased 7.8% to HK$7,736 while that for same-day visitors rose 3.8% to HK$2,075.