Checkpoints in Hong Kong are expected to handle an estimated 11.52 million cross-border trips during the upcoming Christmas and New Year holidays, the Immigration Department said.

The majority of the traffic — about 9.65 million passenger trips — is projected to transit through land-border checkpoints, with key arteries — the Lo Wu, Lok Ma Chau Spur Line/Futian, and Shenzhen Bay control points — expected to see the heaviest traffic, according to government projections.

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Daily passenger flows during the holiday windows — Wednesday to Sunday for Christmas, and Dec 31 through Jan 4 for New Year — are expected to average 225,000, 201,000, and 161,000 at Lo Wu, Lok Mac Chau and Shenzhen Bay respectively.

In a radio program on Wednesday, Fanny Yeung Shuk-fun, executive director of the Travel Industry Council, said she expects that about 1,500 local tour groups will leave the city over the Christmas holidays, roughly matching last year’s numbers. An estimated 60 percent of these travelers will depart via high-speed rail.

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Three- to four-day high-speed rail trips to Chinese-mainland destinations, such as Guilin in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, and the Chaoshan region of Guangdong province, are the most popular, while long-haul tours to places like Northern Europe make up only a small share, she said.

Among East Asian destinations, South Korea continues to attract more interest, whereas demand for Japan has slightly softened, which Yeung attributed to recent bear attacks and earthquake incidents there.

As for inbound visitors, Yeung agreed that local Christmas mood and balmy-weather forecast are major appeals. She said she also expects that the share of overseas visitors during the Christmas period to be higher than in most periods, as Christmas is not an official holiday on the mainland.

Travelers are advised to plan ahead, schedule journeys outside of peak periods, and follow real-time traffic conditions at control points via news reports and the “Easy Boundary” webpage, an official one-stop information platform on immigration clearance.

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In response to the expected holiday travel rush, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government will deploy more front-line officers, open additional clearance counters, and establish a joint command center at the Lo Wu border crossing for coordinated operations between the Immigration Department, Police Force, Customs and Excise Department, and MTR Corp, the city’s rail operator.

About 700 e-Channels will also be operational to speed up clearance processing across all ports. The self-service kiosks, which run on facial-recognition technology, will be able to serve both eligible Hong Kong residents and mainland visitors.

Contact the writer at wanqing@chinadailyhk.com