HONG KONG - Around 2.26 million travelers passed through Hong Kong's sea, land and air control points on the weekend before Christmas Day, according to the Immigration Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government.

Immigration data showed that 1,121,603 travelers—480,129 arrivals and 641.474 departing passengers--passed through the city’s immigration control points on Saturday (Dec 21).

The arrivals included 268,979 Hong Kong residents, 169,596 visitors from the Chinese mainland, and 41,554 travelers from other places.

On Sunday, arrivals increased to 544,593 while departures decreased to 595,119.

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Lo Wu was the busiest control point, handling a total of 228,323 travelers on Saturday and 238,164 passengers yesterday.

The Lok Ma Chau Spur Line and Shenzhen Bay also saw heavy passenger traffic, handling a total of 429,455 and 275,856 travelers, respectively, during the last two days.

According to the Hong Kong Tourism Board, provisional visitor arrival figures for November reached 3.57 million, an increase of 8 percent year-on-year.

Non-mainland visitors accounted for more than 1 million of the total, which is a single-month record since travel fully resumed in Hong Kong and is equivalent to a year-on-year increase of about 20 percent, the HKTB said.

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Arrivals from the Philippines continued to show robust growth momentum with the cumulative result for the first 11 months already exceeding the full-year figures before the pandemic, it added.

From January to November, Hong Kong welcomed about 40.25 million visitors, a 34 percent year-on-year increase, with about half the visitors staying overnight.