“I believe that we have different policy priorities at different times, and I believe everyone agrees that economic development is now our top priority,” Lee said at a press conference.

Hongkongers made more than 3.2 million outbound trips between December 20 and 29. Over the same period, the city recorded 1.24 million arrivals of mainland and overseas visitors, despite Christmas not being a public holiday across the border and in many Asian countries.

One of Lee’s proposals to boost mainland visitor numbers was to bring back a multiple-entry permit scheme for Shenzhen residents, with the initiative potentially expanding to other cities in Guangdong province.

Recent media reports suggested authorities were mulling a reboot of the scheme, which was replaced by once-a-week visit permits in 2015 amid concerns over parallel trading and Hong Kong’s capacity to handle surges in single-day visitors.

The return of tourist coaches in the neighbourhood of To Kwa Wan, part of Lee’s local legislature constituency, led to complaints from residents earlier this year but the NPC delegate maintained that bringing in visitors from the mainland was an urgent matter to help prop up the economy.

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“Businesses, especially the small- and medium-sized ones, as well as catering and retail sectors, will benefit from an orderly relaxation [of mainland residents’ visit permits],” she said. “Ultimately, and hopefully, the workforce and general public will also share a slice of a thriving retail scene.”

Lee also called on the central government to expand the list of cities where mainlanders could travel from to Hong Kong when not taking part in group tours beyond the current 49, and increase the duty-free allowance for bringing back personal goods from 5,000 yuan to 30,000 yuan.

“This 5,000 yuan limit for personal items has not been adjusted for more than 10 years, and it has limited tourists’ appetite for shopping in Hong Kong,” she said, adding that retailers had been lobbying for the increase for years before the pandemic hit.

She said the 30,000 yuan level was proposed with reference to the 100,000 yuan annual quota for mainland residents shopping tax-free on the island province of Hainan, where sales had boomed when borders closed during the pandemic.

Tourism-sector lawmaker Perry Yiu Pak-leung said greater travel flexibility for Guangdong residents living outside Shenzhen could go a long way towards attracting high-spending and repeat visitors who could afford to go to Hong Kong whenever they wished to meet friends or for entertainment.

“Currently, they need to schedule an appointment to get a permit that only allows one trip, and have to apply again if the permit expires,” he said. “Their desire to come isn’t strong under such a restrictive system.”

Sam Ng Hung-sum, managing director of Max Choice, a chain retailer of dried seafood and health supplements, said raising the tax-free quota would not be enough to assure some mainland shoppers, as they were wary of customs’ stringent screening approach that was designed to crack down on parallel trading.

“Looking at a piece of dried fish maw, one can argue it’s worth tens of thousands of dollars [even the receipt says it’s] just a few thousands,” he said. “This can be complicated.”

While he welcomed measures to attract visitors, he said they would not make up for the loss of local customers opting to spend on the mainland.

Daily turnover at the firm’s 15 shops across the city, for example, was now consistently lower on long weekends than weekdays as big spenders were often also keen travellers, he said.

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“At the moment we have plenty of ‘holes’ in our houses in Hong Kong and it’s certainly a good thing even if we can fix just one of them,” he said.

Veteran economist Andy Kwan Cheuk-chiu echoed Ng’s view, pointing out that local consumption had always exceeded tourist spending as a share of the economy.

He added that the economic impact of an increase in mainland tourist numbers might also be weaker than in the past.

“The consumption model in the mainland has changed,” he said.

“Many luxury goods are performing very poorly, while mid-range and low-end products are doing very well, such as those on Pinduoduo,” he said, referring to the mainland’s budget-friendly online marketplace.

Kwan warned that the trend of Hongkongers spending over the border could eventually lead to the long-term decline of the city’s shopping districts and authorities had to consider increasing the cost for residents to head north.

“We need to think about imposing something like a departure tax,” he said. “If this carries on, there will be nothing left in Hong Kong.”