Chief Secretary Chan Kwok-ki today chaired a meeting of the interdepartmental working group on festival arrangements to co-ordinate government departments’ preparatory work ahead of the Mainland’s National Day Golden Week, which will run from October 1 to 7.

Deputy Chief Secretary Cheuk Wing-hing, Secretary for Security Tang Ping-keung and Under Secretary for Transport & Logistics Liu Chun-sun attended the meeting.

Mr Chan said: "The number of visitor arrivals is expected to increase during the National Day Golden Week of the Mainland. The Government will make good preparations for receiving visitors, and maintain close liaison with relevant organisations and the travel trade to prepare well for crowd management, information dissemination and arrangements of public transportation and boundary control points, with a view to responding promptly to various kinds of emergencies and ensuring the smooth operation of various aspects in receiving visitors and offering them a high-quality experience.”

According to the Immigration Department’s estimate, around 1.29 million Mainland visitors will arrive in Hong Kong via the city’s sea, land and air control points during the upcoming holiday week.

Compared with last year’s National Day Golden Week, the daily average number of visitor arrivals is expected to increase by over 5%.

Relevant departments have minimised leave for frontline officers to enable flexible deployment of manpower and the operation of additional counters, temporary counters and channels, with a view to optimising passenger and vehicular flows.

The Government remarked that in view of the anticipated large number of visitors to the Sai Kung High Island Reservoir East Dam and campsites such as Ham Tin Wan, Police will deploy uniformed officers at strategic locations at Pak Tam Chung, Man Yee Road and East Dam, in order to implement traffic controls during peak visitor arrival and departure periods.

Moreover, the Transport Department has co-ordinated with the operator of Green Minibus Route No. 9A (from Pak Tam Chung to the East Dam) to enhance the service, subject to passenger demand.

The Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department will continue the online real-name reservation trial arrangement for the Po Pin Chau section of the East Dam throughout the holiday week, and will implement crowd control measures at the Po Pin Chau section and viewing platform. Information on visitor flows at the East Dam area will be uploaded onto the department's “Enjoy Hiking” website.