Tourism experts from Polytechnic University on Thursday said a platform they have launched to forecast visitor levels in Greater Bay Area cities will help officials cope with surges in arrivals and stay ahead of the latest trends.

The platform anticipates short-term demand by tapping big data, including keyword searches and reviews on social media. Long-term forecasts are based on official data.

Researchers said short-term forecasts will be generated automatically every year, while long-term forecasts will be generated every five years.

Professor Haiyan Song, associate dean of the university’s tourism management school, said accurate forecasts are crucial for the government to roll out tourism policies.

"The eleven [GBA] cities should work together, in terms of providing interesting, attractive tourism products and services, in order to attract tourists from different parts of the world and stay longer within GBA," he said.

He added that the platform can also provide insights on ever-changing tourism trends.

"Every tourist visiting Hong Kong is very much interested in the culture, and this is not what Hong Kong has known in the past," he said.

The platform predicts that Hong Kong will see about 54 million visitors this year, and that numbers will return to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2025.