It was a lukewarm Golden Week for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as the number of visitors to the city remained stagnant at levels seen during the same period a year earlier.

Confounding the SAR's woes were reports from several leading retailers about sluggish sales.

The Hong Kong SAR Immigration Department said on Wednesday that during the first six days of the National Day holiday starting Oct 1, the city received more than 1 million visitors from the mainland, or 3.26 percent more than last year.