With the National Day holiday approaching, mainlanders are busy preparing for their long-anticipated traveling plans. However, the mainland tourists are afraid that their plans to visit Hong Kong, as a much sought-after tourist destination for mainland visitors, may be affected by the ongoing "Occupy Central" demonstration.

A Shenzhen International Travel Service customer service representative said, "Some customers have called us to cancel their trips, but we can't do so. Only when the national tourism bureau sends us a notice will we stop operating the Hong Kong travel route."

"We believe the protests will not affect most parts of our arrangements in the city, but we do suggest tourists avoid going to Central and Admiralty areas."

Liang Chen, an IT engineer who works at Tencent, one of mainland's biggest internet companies headquartered in Shenzhen, said the "Occupy Central" demonstration would not stop him from visiting Hong Kong if he had already planned the trip.

"There is no need to cancel the trip, because the demonstration will not pose any danger to tourists," the 27-year-old said. However, he said visitors' planned traveling route in the city may be affected due to the paralyzed traffic.

A Shenzhen citizen surnamed Zhao, who often visits Hong Kong, agreed, "We just need to avoid the area where the protest is going on because the transportation may be inconvenient, but I don't think the protests will affect us, because I know Hong Kong has protests from time to time all the year round and their protests are well organized and planned."

"Actually, there are big shopping malls in Shatin, which is enough for mainlanders to do shopping there," said Zhao, who has no plans to visit Hong Kong during the Golden Week, "Hong Kong may receive many mainlanders during the holiday. Instead, we have decided to go abroad."

Wang Qingtan, an English teacher in Shenzhen, expressed a different view. The demonstration will affect mainland visitors in terms of safety, she said. As to whether she will cancel her trip to the city, Wang said it depends on how much money she has spent on tickets will be wasted if she canceled the trip. "If I will waste several hundred yuan because of the change, then I will go on with my previous plan (to visit Hong Kong)."

Compared with Shenzhen people, Hong Kong residents are taking a more cautious attitude towards the ongoing demonstration. Jessica Lee, editor of a local magazine, made a detailed plan for her twin sister who works in Shanghai to visit Hong Kong during the National Day holiday. Now, she is paying close attention to the development of the demonstration.

"If the situation remains the same tomorrow, I will withdraw the plane ticket for my sister," she told China Daily reporter, "A part of Hong Kong has been blocked. Many buses have stopped providing service. The current situation is dangerous."

Since last May holiday, Hong Kong has witnessed a decline of visitors to Hong Kong. On May 1, the first day of the national holiday, a total of 143,000 mainlanders visited Hong Kong, down by 11.9 percent from last year's 162,000.

Local hotels' overall occupancy rate is only about 80 percent and retail industries, especially luxury industry, also suffered from a loss of consumers. Some shops even lost almost half of their customers compared with the tourism season two years ago.

Contact the writers at sally@chinadailyhk.com and grace@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 09/30/2014 page4)