Hong Kong News

Nonpartisan, Noncommercial, unconstrained.
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Tourism sector pins hopes on vaccinations as arrivals to Hong Kong remain scarce

Tourism sector pins hopes on vaccinations as arrivals to Hong Kong remain scarce

Fewer than 10,000 people arrived in Hong Kong in the first two months of 2021, down 99.7 per cent compared to the same period last year.

With visitor arrivals to Hong Kong still stuck in the doldrums more than a year after the coronavirus pandemic first struck the once-mighty tourism hub, industry leaders have expressed hopes that the roll-out of vaccines will speed-up the resumption of travel.

Fewer than 10,000 people arrived in Hong Kong in the first two months of 2021, according to provisional numbers released by the Tourism Board on Monday – down 99.7 per cent compared to the same period last year, when the health crisis had just started to make its presence felt.

Only 4,368 people visited the city in January, 99.9 per cent fewer than the year before, while February saw only 5,495 arrivals, for a drop of 97.2 per cent year on year.

Yet there was a glimmer of hope for the battered travel sector after the government last week expanded the city’s vaccination programme to include tourism workers such as hotel staff and licensed guides. The age threshold for the inoculation drive was also lowered on Monday from 60 years old to just 30.

Tourism board chairman Pang Yiu-kai welcomed the government’s decision to designate tourism sector employees as one of the priority groups to receive Covid-19 vaccines.

“Getting the pandemic under control is one of the key factors for resuming cross-border travel between Hong Kong and other regions,” Pang said in a statement. “Therefore, the Hong Kong Tourism Board calls on members of the travel and related industries to actively participate in the vaccination programme and keep up with the anti-epidemic efforts.”

Pang Yiu-kai, chairman of the Hong Kong Tourism Board.


As of 1pm on Monday, some 198,000 people out of the city’s total population of 7.5 million had received either Sinovac or BioNTech vaccines since the programme started in late February.

Perry Yiu Pak-leung, convenor of the Hong Kong Travel Agents’ Relief Alliance, said he believed the vaccination programme was a big step towards ending the spread of the coronavirus, which would in turn expedite the reopening of the border with mainland China and the resumption of international travel.

“Including tourism workers is the light at the end of the tunnel after the industry suffered an entire year with hardly any income,” said Yiu, who had long urged the government to prioritise the industry sector in the inoculation drive.

“Of course, the decision of whether to get vaccinated or not is up to the discretion of each person based on their health conditions, but I’m hopeful that more and more people will get vaccinated so that life can return to some form of normalcy.”

Yiu said he hoped cross-border travel with the mainland could resume as early as May 1 if the inoculation rate within the industry was high enough.

Arrivals are subject to a mandatory 21-day hotel quarantine, while all but three border checkpoints – the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, Shenzhen Bay Port and the airport – have been closed for more than a year.

A fourth wave of cases that emerged in the city in November also dashed hopes for a long-awaited travel bubble with Singapore.

Separately, the Department of Health on Sunday banned Cathay Pacific flights coming into the city from Manila for two weeks after five passengers who flew in on the same route were confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus. On Monday, a total of nine out of 14 imported cases were from the Philippines.

The city added 30 new cases on Monday, taking the overall number of infections to 11,311 with 203 related deaths.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Hong Kong News
0:00
0:00
Close
It's always the people with the dirty hands pointing their fingers
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
Steve Jobs' Son Launches Venture Capital Firm With $200 Million For Cancer Treatments
Google reshuffles Assistant unit, lays off some staffers, to 'supercharge' products with A.I.
End of Viagra? FDA approved a gel against erectile dysfunction
UK sanctions Russians judges over dual British national Kara-Murza's trial
US restricts visa-free travel for Hungarian passport holders because of security concerns
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Political leader from South Africa, Julius Malema, led violent racist chants at a massive rally on Saturday
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
'I am not your servant': IndiGo crew member, passenger get into row over airline meal
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Spanish Citizenship Granted to Iranian chess player who removed hijab
US Senate Republican Mitch McConnell freezes up, leaves press conference
Speaker McCarthy says the United States House of Representatives is getting ready to impeach Joe Biden.
San Francisco car crash
This camera man is a genius
3D ad in front of Burj Khalifa
Next level gaming
BMW driver…
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The politician and the journalist lost control and started fighting on live broadcast.
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
Joe Biden admitted, in his own words, that he delivered what he promised in exchange for the $10 million bribe he received from the Ukraine Oil Company.
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
×