Hongkongers made more than 2.2 million outbound trips between Wednesday and last Saturday, with others saying they were only remaining behind during the Christmas holidays to avoid peak pricing.
On Wednesday, the Immigration Department recorded more than 552,000 outbound trips by residents and about 113,000 visitor arrivals by 9pm. More than 60 per cent were from mainland China, adding to the 660,636 who came to the city between Saturday and Tuesday.
The latest departures took the total number of outbound trips by residents since Saturday to more than 2.2 million.
Last year, 1.9 million residents left the city during the five days from December 22 to 26. During the same period, there were 679,000 visitors, about 75 per cent of whom were from the mainland.
Immigration authorities earlier predicted more than 13 million passenger trips would be made over the Christmas and New Year holidays, with the number of departures via land border crossings estimated to peak at about 595,000 on Christmas Day.
Some residents told the Post they were only staying home for Christmas to avoid peak pricing, saying the city still had ample room for improvement to attract tourists and locals.