More than 1.25 million border crossings were recorded on Christmas Day alone, with hundreds of thousands of people rushing off for the holidays. The Immigration Department said there were 795,000 departures and 457,000 arrivals on Christmas Day, with another 120,000 leaving the city as of 10am on Boxing Day, to 57,000 arrivals. The incoming tourists have helped to fill out hotel rooms in Hong Kong. Alan Chan, chief operations officer at Miramar Group, told an RTHK programme that there was a 90-percent occupancy rate at one of the firm's hotels in Tsim Sha Tsui despite a modest price increase of 5 percent; while a hotel in Causeway was 95 percent full even though rooms were 10 percent more expensive than usual. Chan said around 40 percent of the guests are mainlanders – and many of them are younger travellers. He said as there is no Christmas holiday on the mainland, some of them had wanted to come experience Christmas in Hong Kong. But the restaurant trade says the sector is struggling, as tourists aren't spending as much as they used to, while the large numbers of HongKongers leaving have also hurt their bottom line. Speaking on the same program, the president of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades, Simon Wong, said there was about a 10-percent fall in business on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day compared to last year. "The large number of people leaving Hong Kong naturally results in a dip for the catering and retail industry. Most importantly, consumption intention and spending power have weakened," he said. Wong estimates that mainland tourists are spending around 15 percent less this Christmas compared to pre-pandemic levels, even though many restaurants didn't increase prices for the holidays, and some even slashed prices to better compete with cheaper options in the Greater Bay Area.