500,000 free flight tickets! Hong Kong wants visitors to experience its 'hustle and bustle'

In what can easily be termed an unprecedented move, Hong Kong is offering half a million free tickets for visitors. It aims to resurrect the once-vibrant global hub, which took a significant beating due to the COVID pandemic. Not only 500,000 free tickets, Hong Kong will also distribute another 80,000 tickets for residents in the summer. 

The giveaway of free air tickets will happen in March, and will be distributed by local airlines Cathay Pacific, HK Express and Hong Kong Airlines, said a report by AFP. 

The government is now running a rebranding campaign titled ‘Hello, Hong Kong’ in an effort to tell “good stories” about the region whose reputation has been tarnished a bit due to years of political crises and pandemic curbs. 

Hong Kong is now promising a “no isolation, no quarantine and no restrictions” approach to buoy its businesses and tourism. In a meeting with industry heavyweights, Chief Executive John Lee announced the free air tickets plan. 

Lee called it the “world’s biggest welcome ever”. 

Hong Kong’s strict adherence to Beijing’s zero-COVID doctrine largely kept it virus-free till the Omicron outbreak at the beginning of 2022, but also brought about an economic recession and an exodus of more than 2.5 per cent of its population. In 2022, it welcomed just 600,000 visitors, which is less than 1 per cent of the 2018 figure. 

More than 130 international companies have shuttered their Hong Kong offices in the past three years. More than 140,000 workers left Hong Kong’s labour force in the last year. 

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