'Mainland cities popular for Christmas holidaymakers'
A tourism industry representative on Monday said more and more Hongkongers are opting for mainland cities as they take Christmas breaks, while the restaurant trade blamed the surge in people making trips during the holiday for a dip in business.  The comments came as official figures from the Immigration Department showed that about 1.05 million people crossed into and out of Hong Kong on Christmas Eve, only slightly down from Saturday, which was the busiest day of border transits since the pandemic. Timothy Chui, executive director of the Hong Kong Tourism Association, said the number of people joining group tours to mainland destinations now surpassed pre-pandemic levels, and even more were making individual visits.  "In fact, many hotels on the mainland are very luxurious and comfortable. So I think trips to the Greater Bay Area, in particular, are rather popular," he told an RTHK programme on Christmas Day. "For trips to Taipei, Seoul, Tokyo or Osaka, for example, many people have travelled to these places, but the number of flights has decreased and air fares have risen. When you do the maths, with the same amount of money or even less, the experience on the mainland can be just as fun." Chui also said there had been more tourists coming from Southeast Asia to Hong Kong this festive season. The Immigration Department said the number of departures on Christmas Eve outnumbered arrivals by more than 200,000.  That reflected in slow business at restaurants on Sunday. Simon Wong from the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades said takings were down 15 percent compared to Christmas Eve last year.  He told the same radio programme that many hotel restaurants used to be fully booked on Christmas Eve even two or three weeks in advance, but things have changed for this festive period.  "This year, some hotels did not require reservations and there were seats available for walk-in diners," Wong said.  "The overall business volume on Christmas Eve this year was about HK$380 million. [The figure] was almost at HK$430 million for the same day last year, and clearly there was a drop. As we have seen, a large number of people have left Hong Kong to the mainland or travelled to other countries on Christmas Eve."