Mainland China Overtakes Japan: Hong Kong Travel Data
We tracked ~200,000 booking receipts by Hong Kong users across six major travel platforms 2019–2026, to tell us where Hong Kong travelers went.
In the final quarter of 2023, two lines crossed in Measurable AI‘s e-receipt panel: for the first time, Hong Kong travelers booked more mainland hotel trips than Japanese ones. And then, they never uncrossed. Three years on it isn’t close — of every 100 trips out of the city, the mainland now takes 45. Japan keeps 19. This means nearly one in two trips by Hong Kong users in 2026Q2 end up in mainland hotels.
Japan remains Hong Kongers’ second destination, and its share has been flat since the crossover — with one exception. In the summer of 2025, an “earthquake prophecy” went viral: a Japanese manga, The Future I Saw, predicted a catastrophic earthquake would strike Japan that July. Our receipts show it landed. Japan’s share fell from 28% to 19% in a single quarter (the prophecy window ran April to July 5), while the mainland jumped from 34% to 41%. The prophecy failed to produce an earthquake. It did produce a travel statistic.
As shown in our chart above, Mainland China overtook Japan as Hong Kongers’ top destination in late 2023 — and never looked back. These data points come from Measurable AI’s unique consumer e-receipt panel — actual booking confirmations received by Hong Kong–based users, covering OTA platforms including Agoda, Trip.com, Booking.com, Expedia, Klook, Airbnb, 2019 through 2026. Receipts are consolidated into trips (multiple bookings for one journey count once). Schedule a demo with us for exploring more travel industry route level granular datasets in Hong Kong, and other 20 markets we cover.
Our data also captures several checkpoints that accelerates the northbound trips in Hong Kong, including the Costco Shenzhen open (where now 14% of Costco Shenzhen members are from Hong Kong according to Bloomberg), and the Hong Kong cars go north policy. Since then there has been no single new catalyst — the habit sustains itself.
Where exactly is ‘north’? Mostly one province
Where exactly in “north” are Hong Kong users going? Shenzhen, the sleepover next door is #1 every single year — ~46% of mainland trips, median stay one night. The rest of the table is basically Guangdong: Zhuhai #2, and #3 Guangzhou. Although the majority choose the closest province, the beyond-Guangdong share is quietly rising (19% → 23%) over the last 3 years — users who started at the border towns and are traveling deeper.
Staycation in Hong Kong is dying
Every boom across the border has a casualty at home. In Hong Kong, it’s the staycation — the harbour-view weekend that, for two sealed-border years, was the only trip in town.
Staycations predate the pandemic: 19% of trips in 2019, one in five. Then the border closed and they became the entire market — 89% at the 2021 peak. Nine trips in ten. For two and a half years the staycation wasn’t just a trend; it was all of Hong Kong travel (quarantine-length stays excluded). Today it’s 13% — one trip in eight, below where it started. And the luxury end died fastest: HK$2,500-plus-a-night bookings are down 83%, budget stays 46%. What’s left is the cheap resort weekend, not the harbour-view splurge.
What does a night actually cost?
Based on 2026 data from Measurable AI’s proprietary transactional e-receipt data, A Hong Kong staycation night costs around HK$811, while a mainland night costs around HK$653. Staying home costs 24% more per night than crossing the border.
Look at other hot destinations, Macao (HK$1,171) now runs 44% above a staycation; a Japan night is HK$1,187; Italy tops the table at HK$1,324. The gap is new. In the first half of 2023 a mainland night cost more than a Hong Kong one (≈HK$1,090 vs ≈HK$890). Three years of normalization cut the mainland price paid per night by ~40% — the weekend hop got cheaper as it got routine.
What the receipts say next
According to Measurable AI‘s e-receipt data, mainland China now takes 45 of every 100 trips Hong Kong travelers make out of the city — up from 4 in early 2023, overtaking Japan for good in late 2023 and turning Guangdong into Hong Kong’s de facto holiday region, with Shenzhen the #1 destination every single year. The staycation era that once claimed nine trips in ten has ended below its pre-pandemic baseline, and the economics explain why it won’t reverse soon: a hotel night at home costs 24% more than one across the border. None of this came from surveys or checkpoint headcounts. It came from ~200,000+ real booking confirmations received by Hong Kong consumers across Agoda, Trip.com, Booking.com, Expedia, Klook — one slice of Measurable AI’s transactional e-receipt dataset, which tracks what consumers actually pay across food delivery, ride-hailing, e-commerce, streaming and travel. Hong Kong’s travel wallet is one question; the same panel answers thousands more — market share, pricing, retention, platform head-to-heads — in near real time.
FAQ
Q: What is Hong Kong travelers’ top destination in 2026?
A: Mainland China. According to Measurable AI’s e-receipt data, 45 of every 100 outbound trips by Hong Kong users end in a mainland hotel in 2026, versus 19 for Japan — a crossover that happened in late 2023.
Q: Are staycations still popular in Hong Kong?
A: No. Staycations peaked at 89% of Hong Kong users’ hotel trips in 2021 during closed borders, but have fallen to 13% in 2026 — below the 19% pre-pandemic level.
Q: Is it cheaper to stay in a Hong Kong hotel or travel to mainland China?
A: Crossing the border is cheaper. A Hong Kong staycation night averages HK$811 in 2026, versus HK$653 for a mainland hotel night — staying home costs 24% more, per Measurable AI e-receipt data.
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About Measurable AI
Charlie Sheng is a serial entrepreneur, and a dedicated communicator for technology. She enjoys writing stories with Measurable AI’s very own e-receipts data. You can reach her at [email protected].
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