“The room supply will become tighter this week as more tourists have decided to come to Hong Kong, so hotels in certain regions are almost fully booked.

“The reservations for hotels in popular tourist attractions like Mong Kok and Tsim Sha Tsui are also better,” said Tsui, now the executive director of the federation, on radio on Tuesday.

Tsui added that the purchasing power of citizens on the mainland remains strong, and they have many other choices.

He said he checked and found the prices of hotel rooms in popular destinations among mainlanders, including Sanya and Beijing, are similar to that of Hong Kong hotel rooms, stressing that the SAR remains competitive in the race to lure mainland tourists.

Tsui mentioned that the speed of reserving hotel rooms is slower than in previous years and believed it is because airlines and carriers have yet to reach their maximum capacity following full resumption after Covid-19.

The former home affairs chief also said the reservations are made mainly by independent tourists and pointed out that they would spend two days in Hong Kong before traveling to other cities in the Greater Bay Area.

Meanwhile, Ricky Tse Kam-ting, founding president of the Hong Kong Inbound Tour Operators Association, said the entire tourism sector has been expecting the first post-Covid Golden Week.

Tse estimated there will be 100 to 200 mainland tours a day during the Golden Week, still significantly less than the number of tours ranging between 500 and 600 logged in the past.

“There aren’t that many ‘economy tours’ now, making up only about 10 percent of all mainland tours. The term refers to tours that come on buses or trains and spend about 10 hours in the city before leaving through the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge.

“Everyone has been raising the dining standards so that local residents in Hong Kong will not be affected,” Tse added.