Hongkongers opt for mainland Chinese tours during Easter amid Middle East war

Crowds at West Kowloon station on the first day of the Easter holiday.

Photo: Jelly Tse More Hongkongers have chosen to head north to mainland China during the Easter holiday amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East that has disrupted air traffic, an industry leader has said.

Hong Kong Tourism Association executive director Timothy Chui Ting-pong said the number of outbound tour groups to the mainland during Easter rose 30 per cent year on year.

He noted particularly strong growth in long-haul tours, such as those to the provinces of Guizhou, Hunan and Hubei. “The local economy has improved, and people have more disposable income, so many are planning to travel,” Chui told a radio programme on Friday. “Some may originally have planned to visit Europe or the Middle East, but given the current situation in those regions and the tight availability of flights to Europe, quite a number of customers eventually reconsidered and switched their plans to head to the mainland instead.” Chui expected overall outbound travel during the Easter holiday to be higher than last year.

Global fuel prices have surged since the outbreak of the US-Israel war with Iran, prompting local airlines to raise fuel surcharges last month.

Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways and its budget arm, HK Express, doubled their fuel surcharges, while Hong Kong Airlines and Greater Bay Airlines increased theirs by more than 30 per cent.

Chui said Hong Kong could also expect more mainland visitors during the Easter holiday as it overlapped with the Ching Ming Festival on Sunday.

He noted that most southbound high-speed railway trains on Saturday were fully booked, and that most mainland travellers would come from the Greater Bay Area given the short holiday period.

The Immigration Department estimates that 6.44 million trips will pass through Hong Kong’s border control points during the coming Easter and Ching Ming Festival holiday.

About 5.43 million of those trips are expected to be made via land boundary control points linking Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

The number of outbound and inbound trips across land borders will peak on Friday and next Tuesday, with about 712,000 and 671,000 passengers expected, respectively.

原文链接: 南华早报