Announced on Friday last week, Hong Kong has ended its mandatory hotel quarantine for overseas arrivals after more than two years, easing one of the world’s toughest pandemic control policies.
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Starting from today, all incoming travellers will only be required to go through three days of home medical surveillance, with limited citywide movement.
To avoid losing Hong Kong’s competitive edge to its rivals, medical experts and the business community are urging the government to open up. Friday’s announcement follows the easing of immigration restrictions in Japan and Taiwan announced a day earlier.
Eddy Yip, e-Commerce Lead Hong Kong and Taiwan of Trip.com, said, “As of 14:30 today (23rd September), the flight searches surged by 95 times and the orders recorded a 50 percent increase on Trip.com’s Hong Kong site as compared to the same period last week.
The top five outbound destinations from flight end are Tokyo, Bangkok, Osaka, Seoul, Singapore, and the order growth as compared to the same period last week are 650 percent (Tokyo), 200 percent (Bangkok), 30 percent (Osaka), 100 percent (Seoul), and 100 percent (Singapore), respectively.
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After the Hong Kong government announced ‘0+3’, the number of users viewing flights from 0:00 to 15:45 today sharply increased by 120 times as compared to the same period last week.”