Holiday cheer spreads as travel figures rise

More people spent Christmas Day outside Hong Kong this year than a year ago, the Immigration Department said yesterday.存倉 In addition, the number of people arriving in Hong Kong to celebrate the festive occasion was down on last year. According to the department, 477,594 people left Hong Kong and 334,491 arrived on Christmas Day compared with 432,767 and 350,450 respectively last year. Of this year's arrivals, 35 percent entered through Lo Wu. A third of those going out for their holidays left through Lo Wu, figures similar to last year. About 55,000 people arrived and 66,450 left through Hong Kong airport compared with 49,000 and 54,000 respectively last Christmas. The daily passenger traffic was 75,000 at Lok Ma Chau, 129,880 at Lok Ma Chau Spur Line and 89,400 at Shenzhen Bay. The Immigration Department last week estimated that around 11.11 million passengers would pass through Hong Kong's sea, land and air control points fr儲存m Christmas Eve to New Year's Day, or nearly one million more than last year. A total of 1.9 million passengers arrived in Hong Kong between December 21 and 25 while 2.2 million people left during the same period. About 8.25 million will pass through the land boundary control points, with Lo Wu the busiest with an estimated 3.36 million passengers, or a daily average of about 258,000. Meanwhile, more people are planning to travel outside Hong Kong during the Lunar New Year. EGL Tours executive director Steve Huen Kwok-chuen expected the number of people to register for escorted tours will increase by 5 to 8 percent on last year. He said people preferred to travel in groups with their families and that generally more people traveled during the Lunar New Year than Christmas. As Christmas and the Lunar New Year are just a month apart, EGL Tours opened registration for escorted tour groups a few weeks ago. qi.luo@singtaonewscorp.com 迷你倉