dressed two party trams for the run between Causeway Bay and Sheung Wan. Hong Kong Disneyland and Ocean Park run their Halloween programmes to November 1. This year, October 31 falls on a Saturday. HKTB executive director Anthony Lau said the board wants Hong Kong to have the densest Halloween atmosphere of any city in Asia, so that regional travellers who think of a cosplay party think of Hong Kong. He placed the campaign alongside the board’s six flagship mega events and a wider push to use both Chinese and Western festivals to spread tourism spending into the rest of the economy, citing the response to this year’s Mid-Autumn lantern displays as encouragement. Crowds are back. Spending per head is not According to HKTB, 36.7 million visitors arrived in Hong Kong in the first eight months of the year, up 11 per cent, with the government expecting about 53.8 million arrivals in total this year. During the mainland’s National Day Golden Week, 1.41 million Mainland visitors came between October 1 and 7, roughly 9 per cent above forecast from the Immigration Department.  However, a Legislative Council Research Office publication found that total visitor spending last year was HK$197.5 billion, 44 per cent below 2018. Overnight visitors spent an average of HK$5503 each; same-day visitors spent HK$1139. The tourism board’s own forecast has overnight per-capita spending edging up only slightly this year. Retail sales have grown for 16 straight months, with August at HK$32.1 billion, up 5.6 per cent year on year, and the first eight months up 8.5 per cent, according to the Census and Statistics Department. But on a seasonally adjusted basis, sales value fell 4.6 per cent in the three months to August compared with the prior three months. During Golden Week, Bond Law, executive director of the Hong Kong Retail Management Association, said foot traffic had risen but visitors were still spending cautiously. In other words, Hong Kong has already proven it can draw people. Halloween Month is a test of whether it can make them stay later and spend more once they arrive. Halloween’s economics in Hong Kong sit mostly in food, drink and nightlife, not in shopping bags. Allan Zeman, chairman of the Lan Kwai Fong Group, who helped bring Halloween to the district more than four decades ago, told Reuters the festivities lift food and beverage sales by 20 to 25 per cent each year. Joe Chan Hing of the Hong Kong Bar & Club Association has projected a 20 per cent rise in bar revenue over last year, citing the government’s installations and free transport. Organisers counted about 80,000 people in Lan Kwai Fong on Halloween night 2025. What to watch The useful metrics arrive over the next six weeks: October visitor arrivals from the HKTB, the October retail sales print, the Lan Kwai Fong Association’s final turnover estimate and quarterly restaurant receipts from the Census and Statistics Department. The figure that matters most is not attendance but average ticket per head at participating venues, set against the cost of the discounts used to win it. Further reading: The Halloween squeeze driving an Adelaide costume retailer online.