In an attempt to boost its tourism, Hong Kong has announced that it will give away a total of 5 lakh airline tickets to visitors globally.
Hong Kong has been among the top regions attracting tourism. However, since the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been practicing strict traveling norms.
Countries like India and European nations had opened their borders to foreign tourists and in-country traveling some time back given the prevalence of the Covid-19 pandemic subsiding.
However, Hong Kong had installed some of the world’s toughest quarantine rules until recently, following the world’s second largest economy China’s ‘zero-Covid’ policies.
It was only last month that the city softened the Covid-19 restrictions on its tourism sector. This is because China faced recurring Covid-19 cases recently, deteriorating the already weak global as well as domestic economy.
Hong Kong says it will give away 500,000 airline tickets as it tries to boost its #COVID-hit tourism industry.
— Mirror Now (@MirrorNow) October 7, 2022
The city rolled back several of its #Coronavirus rules in recent weeks. However, major airlines are struggling to get their flight schedules back to pre-pandemic levels pic.twitter.com/uXS6NHt827
Speaking of Hong Kong, the city alone had attracted nearly 56 million tourists a year before the Covid-19 pandemic and now that it has opened its boundaries to visitors, the popular destination is indulging in significant steps for attracting tourists back after a halt of over two years.
The city has recently done away with its mandatory hotel quarantine requirement for travelers coming to Hong Kong. Not only has it removed this requirement, CNN has reported that the city will always give away half a million tickets to global visitors as well as residents.
The total worth of this move will stand at around $254.8 million.
“Back in 2020, Airport Authority Hong Kong 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,” said a spokesperson to the news daily.
They added that the purchase will serve 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.
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