Hong Kong lifts flight ban, inbound and outbound flight searches spike

The flight ban was announced on 8 January due to the prevalence of the Omicron variant in the country

In February, Commerce Secretary Edward Yau emphasised that Hong Kong’s tourism industry had to be upgraded to accommodate visitors once the borders reopen. 

Some HKD1.3 billion (USD166 million) was allocated towards the tourism sector, according to news.gov.hk. This would be primarily used to train staff, launch tourism product, implement measures such as the Cultural & Heritage Sites Local Tour Incentive Scheme

“I think Hong Kong remains a very attractive place for tourists. But of course, for the entire world, Covid has been putting up a major barrier. So we are taking this opportunity of this lull period to upgrade the trade as a whole, to maintain Hong Kong’s image and also to equip every frontline practitioner,” Yau concluded.

This week, however, the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) received an additional HKD600 million (USD76.7 million) from the government. And with the country lifting its flight ban on nine countries beginning 1 April, as reported by China Briefing, the tourism sector is bound to pick up during the second half of the year, if not immediately.

More: The Philippines to fully reopen its borders to all foreign tourists on 1 April

The flight ban was announced on 8 January due to the prevalence of the Omicron variant in the country.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE mentioned that Expedia.com.hk saw the spike in online flight searches spiked after the announcement of the ban lift. Overall outbound flight searches increased by 90 percent and the top five destinations were London (+130 percent), Bangkok (+120 percent), Vancouver (+105 percent), Toronto (+80 percent), and Tokyo (+75 percent).

Inbound searches also went up by 285 percent, more than 25 percent of them coming from the UK. This was followed by the US, Canada, Australia, and the Philippines.

Passengers arriving from overseas countries will have to undergo a quarantine period of 14 days – seven days if they have negative rapid test results on the sixth and seventh days.

The Property Report editors wrote this article. For more information, email: [email protected].