Hong Kong’s cross-departmental festive task-force, chaired by Chief Secretary Chan Kwok-ki, has ordered round-the-clock preparations at every control point after the Immigration Department projected that about 1.43 million mainland Chinese visitors will stream into the city during the nine-day mainland Spring Festival ‘golden week’ from 15 to 23 February 2026 – roughly 160,000 arrivals a day and 6 per cent more than last year. (news.gov.hk)
The Lo Wu, Lok Ma Chau Spur Line and Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge checkpoints are expected to bear the heaviest loads. 2,200 package tours have already been registered with the Travel Industry Council, and major attractions such as Hong Kong Disneyland and Ocean Park have activated crowd-management protocols and real-time ticketing caps to spread traffic throughout the period.
While the government decided against lengthening opening hours at most land crossings, it has pledged “flexible deployment” of immigration officers, extra kiosks and a joint command centre with mainland counterparts to deal with any spike. Visitors will be urged to check the ImmD mobile app for e-Queue times and to stagger journeys outside peak slots.
![Hong Kong braces for 1.43 million mainland visitors over Lunar New Year Golden Week]()
For travellers who need entry permits or visa renewals, VisaHQ can streamline the paperwork ahead of the trip. Through its Hong Kong portal (https://www.visahq.com/hong-kong/), the service offers door-to-door document handling, corporate accounts and real-time status tracking—an extra layer of assurance for tour operators and business visitors hoping to avoid last-minute hiccups at crowded checkpoints.
For corporates, the forecast offers a near-term boost to retail, F&B and hotel revenues, but it also resurrects long-standing operational headaches: labour shortages in front-line service roles, shortages of cross-boundary coach drivers, and potential bottlenecks for executives transiting between Greater Bay Area meetings. HR and mobility managers should advise staff to pre-book cross-border transport, allow buffer time for meetings scheduled on either side of the boundary and monitor ad-hoc crowd-control measures that could delay travel.
Strategically, the sustained recovery in short-haul leisure flows strengthens Hong Kong’s case as a hub for regional headquarters that need quick physical access to mainland clients without locating staff on the mainland full-time. It also supports the Airport Authority’s aggressive targets for post-pandemic passenger volumes and the government’s push to reignite the city’s events calendar.
The Lo Wu, Lok Ma Chau Spur Line and Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge checkpoints are expected to bear the heaviest loads. 2,200 package tours have already been registered with the Travel Industry Council, and major attractions such as Hong Kong Disneyland and Ocean Park have activated crowd-management protocols and real-time ticketing caps to spread traffic throughout the period.
While the government decided against lengthening opening hours at most land crossings, it has pledged “flexible deployment” of immigration officers, extra kiosks and a joint command centre with mainland counterparts to deal with any spike. Visitors will be urged to check the ImmD mobile app for e-Queue times and to stagger journeys outside peak slots.
For travellers who need entry permits or visa renewals, VisaHQ can streamline the paperwork ahead of the trip. Through its Hong Kong portal (https://www.visahq.com/hong-kong/), the service offers door-to-door document handling, corporate accounts and real-time status tracking—an extra layer of assurance for tour operators and business visitors hoping to avoid last-minute hiccups at crowded checkpoints.
For corporates, the forecast offers a near-term boost to retail, F&B and hotel revenues, but it also resurrects long-standing operational headaches: labour shortages in front-line service roles, shortages of cross-boundary coach drivers, and potential bottlenecks for executives transiting between Greater Bay Area meetings. HR and mobility managers should advise staff to pre-book cross-border transport, allow buffer time for meetings scheduled on either side of the boundary and monitor ad-hoc crowd-control measures that could delay travel.
Strategically, the sustained recovery in short-haul leisure flows strengthens Hong Kong’s case as a hub for regional headquarters that need quick physical access to mainland clients without locating staff on the mainland full-time. It also supports the Airport Authority’s aggressive targets for post-pandemic passenger volumes and the government’s push to reignite the city’s events calendar.
