An extra 15,000 people a day will be able to enter and exit Hong Kong at land crossings in the four days leading up to Lunar New Year, officials announced on Saturday, after travellers booked up most of the available timeslots for the year's busiest travel period.

The number of people allowed to cross the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge in private cars each day will also be doubled for those four days – from Wednesday to Saturday – to 2,000 each way.

"We have noticed that, as compared with other days, the demand from Hong Kong people for travelling to the mainland via land [boundary control points] prior to the Chinese New Year is relatively keen...The time slots of January 18 to 21 have almost been fully booked overall," a government spokesman said.

"The remaining days of the eight-week period ahead come with generally sufficient time slots for booking to cater for people's travelling needs as observed so far," he added.

Since Sunday, up to 50,000 people a day have been able to head north via the Lok Ma Chau, Shenzhen Bay and Man Kam To checkpoints after booking a timeslot online prior to their trip, with the same number of mainland residents able to make the journey in the opposite direction.

That number will increase to 65,000 people a day from Wednesday to Saturday.

A total of 45,000 places per day will be available at Lok Ma Chau instead of 35,000, while the daily quota to travel via Shenzhen Bay will increase to 15,000 from the current 10,000.

The number of people allowed to cross via Man Kam To remains unchanged at 5,000.

The government said it would deploy sufficient manpower at different border checkpoints when the quota is increased to ensure the resumption of quarantine-free travel is safe, orderly and smooth.

Quarantine-free travel resumed on Sunday, freeing travellers of the need to undergo quarantine. As well as the land crossing spots, people can travel by air, sea or rail, depending on availability. All travellers must take a PCR test for Covid within 48 hours before departure.