China’s normally busy ‘Golden Week’ holiday break is looking like a wash-out for Hong Kong’s under pressure hotel industry.

It is traditionally one of Hong Kong’s busiest periods for tourism but Chinese group tours are down a massive 86%, according to the city’s Travel Industry Council.

Four months of weekend anti-government protests have taken their toll with mainlanders staying away in their droves.

Even with airfares plunging nearly 40%, only about 30% of hotel rooms are booked out for the holiday period.

Normally, a week before the holidays, more than 70% of all rooms are already usually booked.

Last year’s Golden Week saw about 1.5 million mainland Chinese visitors.

According to Chinese travel platform Qunar.com, airfares from Shanghai to Hong Kong are down 38% for Golden Week compared to last year.

Yiu Si-wing, a Hong Kong lawmaker representing the tourism industry expects visitor numbers to be down at least 40% this Golden Week.

The Travel Industry Council says there is only an average of 15 group tours per day coming to Hong Kong compared to 110 last year.