A generous incentive approach to lure back tourists once borders reopen fully is what Hong Kong going to do and in this bargain they are giving away 500,000 free flight tickets.
The Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK) have already purchased the air passes , which were worth around $254.8 million , as part of the region's efforts to boost the tourism industry. Before the pandemic, the country saw around 56 million visitors per year.
Hong Kong may have one of the strictest entry requirements at present , asking travellers to get tested multiple times when visiting, in contrast to all major tourist destinations.
Currently, in order to be eligible to travel to the Chinese Special Administrative Region , arrivals must submit a valid vaccination certificate and agree to test themselves repeatedly up to Day 7 after landing, as well as reporting all results to the relevant authorities.
Previously home to one of the top airports in Asia, Hong Kong has slipped from an enviable number two position to somewhere out of the top fifty on a list of the world’s best-connected airports, mainly because so few tourists are actually flying into the city that airlines are dropping it from their flight schedule altogether.
Figures showed the number of incoming travellers to the Hong Kong during the first eight months of the year reached 184,000, that surpassed the 91,400 recorded for all of 2021. But the number was far below the 56 million people who visited in 2019.
Realizing the damage and losses already incurred in the process of Pandemic lockdowns, tickets have been purchased from airlines like Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong Express and Hong Kong Airlines, aiming a distribution both locally and globally.
"Back in 2020, [AAHK] purchased around 500,000 air tickets in advance from the territory's home-based airlines as part of a relief package to support the aviation industry," a spokesperson said.
"The purchase serves the purpose of injecting liquidity into the airlines upfront, while the tickets will be given away to global visitors and Hong Kong residents in the market recovery campaign."
This surprising move of free tickets distribution in 2023 by the city's airport authority is a clear attempt of Hong Kong to reconnect with the world after it completely shut its doors to non-residents for nearly three years.
Dane Cheng, executive director of the Hong Kong Tourism Board added that airport authorities will finalize the arrangements with airline companies.
"Once the government announces it will remove all COVID-19 restrictions for inbound travelers, we'll roll out the advertising campaigns for the free air tickets," he said.
For two years, Hong Kong had strict regulations and protocols handling COVID-19, that reflected the Policies of China. On September 26, it announced that incoming travelers no longer had to go into hotel quarantine or provide a negative Covid test to board flights to Hong Kong.
Incoming tourists must still submit a pre-flight vaccination certificate, a negative PCR/rapid antigen test, and must monitor themselves at home or at a hotel for three days. Throughout the monitoring period, they will not be allowed to eat at restaurants or visit bars.
More is needed , these efforts follow the city’s recent relaxation of rules for travel , but not to an extent that allows normal tourism to resume , that can prove Hong Kong as a Hub , like that of Pre-pandemic days.
