An inter-departmental task-force confirmed that 950 000 travellers entered Hong Kong between New Year’s Eve and 4 January—40 per cent more than a year earlier. Mainland Chinese residents made up 740 000 arrivals (up 48 %), helped by Beijing’s decision to grant a three-day public holiday. Non-mainland arrivals grew 19 per cent to 210 000.
To cope, the Immigration Department stretched operating hours at Lo Wu and Shenzhen Bay until 2 a.m., opened 300 additional e-Channel lanes across land and sea ports and reactivated its Emergency Monitoring & Support Centre. Crowd-management cameras feeding into an AI dashboard allowed officers to throttle passenger flows dynamically. Despite the surge, average clearance time at land ports stayed below 25 minutes, avoiding the gridlock seen in 2024.
![950 000 visitors flood Hong Kong over New-Year weekend as checkpoints extend hours]()
On the paperwork front, companies coordinating last-minute cross-border trips can streamline formalities by using VisaHQ’s Hong Kong portal (https://www.visahq.com/hong-kong/), which consolidates visa rules for more than 200 destinations and offers on-demand courier pickup for passport submissions. The service’s real-time status alerts dovetail nicely with the Immigration Department’s e-Channel updates, saving travel managers both time and anxiety.
The tourism bounce is a relief for hoteliers who endured soft weekday occupancy last autumn. The Hong Kong Hotels Association reported an 88 % average occupancy during the period, with ADR (average daily rate) up 22 % year-on-year. Retail footfall in Causeway Bay jumped 30 %, according to property consultancy C&W.
Travel managers should note that ad-hoc extended hours may return during the 9–17 February Lunar New Year window. Companies sending staff into or out of the Greater Bay Area should factor in possible late-night rail schedules and remind travellers that Smart Departure QR-codes are now compulsory at sea terminals.
To cope, the Immigration Department stretched operating hours at Lo Wu and Shenzhen Bay until 2 a.m., opened 300 additional e-Channel lanes across land and sea ports and reactivated its Emergency Monitoring & Support Centre. Crowd-management cameras feeding into an AI dashboard allowed officers to throttle passenger flows dynamically. Despite the surge, average clearance time at land ports stayed below 25 minutes, avoiding the gridlock seen in 2024.
On the paperwork front, companies coordinating last-minute cross-border trips can streamline formalities by using VisaHQ’s Hong Kong portal (https://www.visahq.com/hong-kong/), which consolidates visa rules for more than 200 destinations and offers on-demand courier pickup for passport submissions. The service’s real-time status alerts dovetail nicely with the Immigration Department’s e-Channel updates, saving travel managers both time and anxiety.
The tourism bounce is a relief for hoteliers who endured soft weekday occupancy last autumn. The Hong Kong Hotels Association reported an 88 % average occupancy during the period, with ADR (average daily rate) up 22 % year-on-year. Retail footfall in Causeway Bay jumped 30 %, according to property consultancy C&W.
Travel managers should note that ad-hoc extended hours may return during the 9–17 February Lunar New Year window. Companies sending staff into or out of the Greater Bay Area should factor in possible late-night rail schedules and remind travellers that Smart Departure QR-codes are now compulsory at sea terminals.
