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Desperate Hong Kong is giving away 500,000 FREE flights in a bid to attract tourists after Communist Party’s draconian Covid restrictions drove visitors away
- Tourists get free flights to Hong Kong to boost visitor numbers
- 184,000 visited in the first eight months of 2022, compared to 56 million pre-Covid in 2019
- Initiative will give away 500,000 plane tickets worth £225m to travelers
- Global campaign rolls out next year and starts with short-haul flights
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Tourists are being offered free flights to Hong Kong in an effort to boost visitor numbers, which have fallen by tens of millions a year since the Covid-19 pandemic.
The initiative will give away 500,000 air tickets worth £225 million to encourage travelers to visit once authorities lift all coronavirus restrictions.
The global campaign is expected to launch early next year.
Hong Kong’s tourist board will manage the scheme’s advertising campaign, while the airport authority will distribute the free tickets.
Before the pandemic, 56 million people visited Hong Kong as a whole in 2019, while only 184,000 visitors came to the city in the first eight months of this year.
The initiative will give away 500,000 air tickets worth £225 million to encourage travelers to visit once authorities lift all coronavirus restrictions
“The airport authority has earmarked HK$2 billion in 2020 to purchase about 500,000 tickets from various local airlines to promote the city’s tourism industry once the pandemic has subsided,” said Dane Cheng, executive director of the Hong Kong Tourism Board.
The scheme would begin targeting visitors from Asia and other short-haul markets, the tourism chief added.
Before the pandemic, in 2019, 56 million people visited Hong Kong as a whole, while only 184,000 visitors came to the city in the first eight months of this year.
Until recently, the city, which followed China’s strict Covid policies, had some of the strictest restrictions in the world.
Changes to the isolation rules were announced last month, requiring travelers to check for possible contamination just three days after arrival.
The scheme would begin targeting visitors from Asia and other short-haul markets, the city’s tourism chief said. Pictured: Travelers at Hong Kong International Airport
The city’s government said it would no longer require people to go into hotel quarantine or show a negative Covid test before boarding flights to Hong Kong.
Travelers rushed to buy plane tickets to and from Hong Kong after the news.
Promotions of the new offering targeting China will be restricted until access restrictions are eased there as well.
Prudence Lai, senior analyst at market research firm Euromonitor, told the BBC that the market relies heavily on Chinese tourists, “as mainland China contributes to more than half of Hong Kong’s inbound arrivals and travel revenue.”
British airline Virgin Atlantic’s withdrawal from Hong Kong officially ends the company’s 30-year presence in the city and backs off previous plans to resume flights from March 2023
Meanwhile, British airline Virgin Atlantic announced on Wednesday that it will scrap its Heathrow-Hong Kong services and close its Hong Kong office.
The withdrawal officially puts an end to Virgin’s 30-year presence in the city and backfires on previous plans to resume flights from March 2023.
Virgin Atlantic has suspended flights to Hong Kong since December and is one of several airlines not to operate flights through Russian airspace after the invasion of Ukraine.