A tourism sector representative says he expects more mainland tourists to arrive in Hong Kong on Thursday and Friday as their National Day Golden Week continues.

More than 224,000 mainlanders arrived in the SAR when the eight-day mainland holiday began on Wednesday.

Timothy Chui, executive director of the Hong Kong Tourism Association, told an RTHK radio show on Thursday that he believes many visitors are still on their way to the SAR by high-speed rail or plane, as they only finished work the day before National Day.

He said that among the 1,200 tour groups that are expected to arrive, half of them will be one-day tours, while the rest are on a multi-destination basis.

Chui, who is also the managing director of O'Hotel, said many tourists chose to stay in Hong Kong after the National Day fireworks, despite room rates in Tsim Sha Tsui being up by five to 10 percent.

"The room rate for boutique hotels like ours, or luxury hotels, even though it is higher than usual, the difference is not too significant," he said.

"The travelling habits of many mainland tourists were: if they could reserve a hotel room after enjoying the fireworks, they would book it, or return to Shenzhen where they would definitely be able to book a hotel room if they failed to do so."

Meanwhile, wholesale and retail sector lawmaker Peter Shiu said the long holiday, along with discounts and perks at restaurants and half-price movie tickets as part of the National Day celebrations, boosted business.

Queues were seen outside stores selling luxury goods and jewellery, he said.

Shiu said at least 226,000 SAR residents left Hong Kong on Wednesday, but the impact on the retail sector was not too significant.

"With people leaving Hong Kong, of course sales would decline. But I believe people heading north has become a routine, and the number of people leaving Hong Kong to the Greater Bay Area is even higher over the weekend. As today is not a public holiday, so there should be fewer people leaving the city yesterday," he said.

"Also, as the government rolled out many discounts on National Day, it might have reduced the number of people heading north."