Authorities have described the declining number of mainland Chinese visitors to Hong Kong as alarming and could affect the city's economy.

Hong Kong's Travel Industry Council Executive Director Joseph Tung described as alarming the drop in the number of mainland Chinese visitors to Hong Kong during the Lunar New year holidays.

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While the drop was just 0.3% over the first three days of the holidays, the fall was a first in about 20 years.

The drop was attributed to the pro-democracy demonstrations and the recent spate of anti-China shopper protests in local malls.

Tung said that if these things will carry on, the high spenders in China can skip Hong Kong and go elsewhere, like Europe.

"Put yourself in their shoes. If you feel as though people are not welcoming you, why would you come to Hong Kong?" Tung said. "If these things carry on... the high spenders in China can just go elsewhere, like Europe."

The drop comes as Hong Kong's leader Leung Chun-ying said he would raise the issue of large numbers of mainland Chinese visitors with Beijing at a parliamentary meeting next month.

"If we have to restrict or decrease the numbers of mainland Chinese coming to Hong Kong then we must continue to discuss this with (China)...this is a difficult task," he told Reuters.

For the entire 2014, over 40 million mainland tourists visited Hong Kong. A total of just 437,199 mainland tourists arrived in Hong Kong since January of this year.

A decline in the number of mainland Chinese tourists in Hong Kong is indeed a cause for alarm, analysts said, because mainland's outbound tourist are expected to hit 200 million by 2020.

China is the world's biggest source of outbound tourists, a report by CLSA said.

TagsChinese Tourists, Chinese Tourists in Hong Kong