Hong Kong residents and tourists welcomed the government’s plans to hand out 500,000 free airline tickets to boost tourism and the economy of the region
“I think any kind of incentive to bring people from overseas back to Hong Kong will benefit the economy,” a tourist said on footage captured on Saturday.
“I don’t think it’s going to do much because it’s like a one-off thing”, said a resident, on the contrary.
“Probably it has an influence on the wealthy people coming from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, wherever. But it doesn’t influence the way it should because all the US and European tourists have no chance to benefit from these tickets”, commented another tourist.
According to local media reports, the tickets will be distributed over six months starting in March through three Hong Kong carriers – Cathay Pacific, HK Express and Hong Kong Airlines. A total of half a million tickets cost the city about $254.8 million.
After China dropped its ‘zero COVID’ policy travel restrictions in the last weeks, the Asian country aims to resume business and tourism connections with other countries.