A minibus operator in Sai Kung said on Friday traffic was smooth on the first day of the Labour Day Golden Week holiday amid an influx of mainland visitors to High Island Reservoir East Dam.

The spot has turned into a tourist hotspot after mainland visitors recommended the attraction on social media platforms.

Speaking on an RTHK radio programme, Stephen Fung, general manager at Sai Kung PLB (Maxicab), said his company had arranged for 30 minibuses to operate during the holiday between Pak Tam Chung and East Dam – half of which were rented from other operators – and that services began an hour earlier than usual.

He pointed out that a round trip took only 40 minutes.

"The situation was better than we expected," Fung said.

"Back on March 22 [which saw an unexpected influx of visitors], traffic was very heavy and a round trip took about an hour and a half.

"But on May 1, given that there were more minibuses and journey times were shorter, we achieved our goal of having our minibuses there wait for passengers to get on most of the time."

Fung went on to say that the smoother traffic situation was also due to the completion of road resurfacing and the expansion of passing bays or lay-bys on one-way roads.

The number of visitors were 20 to 30 percent short of estimates, he added, adding that he suspected this was due to traffic concerns on the part of visitors.

But Fung believes the enhancement of traffic arrangements will make more tourists less hesitant to come to the area over the next couple of days.

He added that the company plans to stick to similar arrangements of putting on extra minibuses and manpower for the National Day Golden Week holiday in October.

The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department wrote on its social media page that it would offer latest updates about people flows through East Dam when necessary to enable people to plan their trip as soon as possible.

Sai Kung district councillor Christine Fong told the same programme that given that signal reception for mobile network coverage in the area is relatively weak, she suggested authorities also offer updates on the flow of travellers through border checkpoints so as to allow tourists to better plan their itineraries.