Hong Kong's retail and tourism sectors have suffered a heavy blow following recent protests against Chinese mainland shoppers, and the numbers of daily tour groups from the mainland to Hong Kong dropped by 60 percent in early March, media reported.

In early March, an average of 170 tour groups visited Hong Kong daily, a drop of nearly 60 percent from the usual 400, Hong Kong-based Sing Tao Daily reported Thursday.

In January, 11,000 mainland tour groups visited the region, and the number dropped to 7,751 in February, an average of 270 groups every day, the report said.

Even counting the Spring Festival holidays which usually attract lots of mainland tourists, the numbers of daily tour groups in February still dropped 33 percent compared with February 2014. 

"It's very rare to see the number of tour groups in February drop as much as 30 percent," said Joseph Tung Yao-chung, head of Hong Kong's Travel Industry Council.

Following the decline in visitor numbers, the income of Hong Kong hotels dropped 20 to 30 percent, according to Yiu Si-wing, a legislator from the tourism constituency. He said Hong Kong's tourism has walked into "winter," as more mainland tourists feared visiting. 

Retailers also lost 30 to 50 percent of their income during the period, with monthly salaries for some employers falling by as much as 30 percent.

Some employees in pharmacies and cosmetics and video stores said they were disturbed by the protests, and they feared that their safety might be harmed if the protests escalated. 

Hong Kong economist Kwan Cheuk-chiu estimated that around 10,000 Hong Kong residents would become unemployed if the number of mainland visitors fell by 20 percent.

Tung said that the protests have  sent a signal Hong Kong does not welcome mainlanders, meaning that mainland visitors have postponed or canceled trips, according to Tung. Mainland visitors instead flocked to destinations like Japan, South Korea and the US, attracted by favorable exchange rates.

Some radical protesters have confronted and verbally abused mainland visitors since Sunday, and Hong Kong police had arrested nine people, including some school and college students as of Thursday, chinanews.com reported.