His remarks came as the government gets ready to release the advance estimates of the city’s gross domestic product for the first quarter of 2026 on Tuesday.
Writing in his weekly blog, Chan said GDP growth is expected to accelerate, thanks to improvements in private consumption and good performances in exports and fixed investments.
Local consumption has been recovering over the past year, with mega events held by the government attracting more tourists, he said.
Chan said the number of visitors to Hong Kong reached over 14.3 million in the first quarter, while the tourist volume for the whole year was expected to exceed an earlier estimate of 53.8 million, driving tourism-related spending to over HK$240 billion.
During the Labour Day Golden Week holiday, Hong Kong recorded more than 600,000 visitor arrivals on the first two days of May, marking a six percent increase year-on-year, he said.
Chan added that some restaurants and stores were expecting business to be strong during the holiday.