Tourists queue to enter the Hong Kong Palace Museum (HKPM) in West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong, May 1, 2023. (EDMOND TANG / CHINA DAILY)
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region welcomed more than 320,000 tourists from the Chinese mainland on the first two days of the Labor Day holidays, and expects the figure to reach 600,000 before the mainland’s five-day “Golden Week” ends on Wednesday.
Speaking ahead of a weekly Executive Council meeting on Tuesday, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said he’s pleased with the performance so far, with tourists taking in Hong Kong’s diverse attractions, not only as a shopping mecca, but also a place with serene country parks and tranquil outlying islands as well.
Sunday saw an unprecedented number of visitors at Hong Kong Palace Museum and M+ museum in the West Kowloon Cultural District since the facilities’ opening, with 7,300 and 19,000 people touring the museums, respectively
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The Labor Day holidays, which began on April 29, mark the first long holiday break on the mainland since the full resumption of cross-boundary travel in February this year.
Sunday saw an unprecedented number of visitors at Hong Kong Palace Museum and M+ museum in the West Kowloon Cultural District since the facilities’ opening, with 7,300 and 19,000 people touring the museums, respectively.
According to the SAR’s Immigration Department, about 1.58 million travelers passed through the city’s air, land and sea control points on the first two days of the holidays.
Expressing gratitude for the efforts of the tourism sector and government departments, Lee said local tourist attractions have not only given visitors good experiences of Hong Kong, but also ensured the city’s hospitality image.
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He said it’s a welcome sign that visitors have diverse choices with Hong Kong’s attractive venues that could lure more tourists.
The city made a splash over the weekend with the launch of the “Happy Hong Kong” campaign, while “Cinema Day”, with all admission tickets fixed at HK$30 ($3.84), drew nearly 222,000 moviegoers. The number was triple that of normal days and was the highest for a single day in April. The gourmet marketplace held in Wan Chai over the weekend attracted about 44,000 people. It will proceed to Sha Tin this weekend and later to Kwun Tong in Kowloon.
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Lee said he’s confident about Hong Kong’s economic revival this year, saying the economy will outperform last year’s, having expanded 2.7 percent in the first quarter of 2023.