Hong Kong Giving Out 500,000 Free Airline Tickets To Re-Start Tourism Industry Post-COVID

Hong Kong seems to be serious about getting its airline industry “off the ground” – literally – now that the pandemic (or its restrictions, should we say) is officially in the rearview mirror.

The country was bringing in close to 56 million visitors per year before the pandemic and now, it attempting to boost its tourism industry back to towards those pre-pandemic numbers by giving away 500,000 airline tickets. 

The move comes only days after the country did away with its mandatory hotel quarantine requirement, CNN Travel wrote this week. 

The country’s Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK) told CNN that the half million tickets would be earmarked for global visitors and residents. The tickets are worth about $254,8 million when combined. 

A spokesperson for the AAHK said: “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.”

“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,” they continued. 

As the report notes, Hong Kong has cut off from the rest of the world due to its stringent Covid-19 quarantine rules, which made it nearly impossible to travel to the country. Hong Kong’s rules “at one stage required incoming travelers to spend 21 days in a hotel room at their own expense, with only Hong Kong residents permitted entry,” CNN wrote.

The hotel quarantine had been reduced from seven to three days and was eventually done away with entirely on September 26. When the regulations were scrapped “droves of residents” logged on to airline websites in unison to book flights. 

“Expedia saw a nine-fold surge in search for flights from Hong Kong to Tokyo and 11-fold for flights from Hong Kong to Osaka,” the report says. 

Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee concluded Friday: “We hope to give the maximum room to reconnect Hong Kong, and to revitalize our economy.”