As tourism-related sectors in Hong Kong joined the chorus of optimism about a “better-than-expected performance” during the Golden Week holiday period, industry leaders and experts called for more proactive and innovative solutions to revive the city’s fortunes in the post-pandemic tourism market amid fundamental change in travel habits and spending patterns.

Hong Kong saw the arrival of more than 1.2 million Chinese mainland visitors during the weeklong tourism and spending celebration that started with National Day, marking an over 38 percent rise from the previous year.

The city welcomed 1,100 tour groups during the weeklong holidays, beating the expectation of 850 tour groups, with the percentage of overnight visitors up to more than 70 percent, compared to nearly 50 percent a year earlier, according to Fanny Yeung Shuk-fan, executive director of the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong.

The daily average number of arrivals from the mainland was around 170,000, which exceeded that of the 2023 National Day Golden Week and the 2024 Labour Day Golden Week by around 27 percent and some 13 percent, respectively, according to a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government statement.

Mainland inbound visitor arrivals peaked on National Day with around 220,000 visitors arriving in Hong Kong, marking a daily record high since the pandemic while the fireworks display over Victoria Harbour attracted over 330,000 spectators.

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Raymond Chan Kam-wing, chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Kowloon New Territories Hawker Associations, described the 50 percent business growth as “a real surprise”, with the backing of a strong flow of tourists, whose arrival lifted local household consumption.

Riding high on the recently announced stimulus package, the onshore Shanghai Composite Index advanced over 23 percent in a nine-day winning streak, while the benchmark Hang Seng Index added nearly 16 percent in the trading week before the Golden Week break.

The upbeat market sentiment and supportive policies come as a much-needed, powerful boost, encouraging both visitors and local citizens to go on a spending spree, tourism lawmaker Perry Yiu Pak-leung said.

“The overall ambience for Hong Kong’s retail market is more positive after the recent bullish stock market,” said Lawrence Wan Wan-keung, senior director of advisory and transaction services in retail for US-based global real estate advisory company CBRE.

Holiday sales of Wan’s retail clients either met or exceeded their expectations. Yet, seasonal factors play their part.

“Due to the festive season in the second half of the year, including the National Day, Christmas and New Year, retail business is usually more active at this time,” he said.

Since Hong Kong reopened its borders with the normalization of travel last year, the special administrative region government has bankrolled efforts to help the city’s tourism-related sectors bounce back strongly.

“We’ve seen a recovery of tourism in Hong Kong, but it’s still short of the pre-pandemic levels,” said Lynn Song Lin, Hong Kong-based chief economist for Greater China at European bank ING.

Behind the scenes of a recovery comes “a key change”, where “per visitor spending remains quite low compared to pre-pandemic levels”, Song said.

Over the second quarter of 2024, same-day in-town visitors spent an average of HK$1,222 ($157) per person while travelling in Hong Kong, much less than the average of HK$2,202 spent in 2018. Overnight visitors spent an average of HK$5,641 per person during the later period, still a long way off the HK$6,614 spent in 2018, data from the Hong Kong Tourism Board shows.

READ MORE: HK records nearly 30m visitors in first eight months of 2024

Amid the trends for budget travel and same-day trips, Song said such fundamental change will have a mixed impact on Hong Kong’s tourism industry, with the local food and beverage sector reaping more benefits while the retail sector getting less support.  

Wan posed an urgent question of a group that contributes more than 77 percent of the city’s inbound visitor arrivals and has been an integral part of the country’s rapid development and meteoric rise, asking, “What can Hong Kong do to bring new elements for tourists, especially those from the Chinese mainland?”  

With more tourists demanding quality, a high level of service and an unforgettable experience at their destination of choice, Yiu said the industry is crying out for government-led, high-level, cross-agency collaboration to support the rolling out of a constellation of new tourism products to offer a deep experience and fresh tastes for people descending on the financial hub.

Contact the writer at sophialuo@chinadailyhk.com