14 November 2022, Hong Kong – as Hong Kong scrapped hotel quarantine, outbound travel has resumed and increase 50%. Several countries are starting to benefit from this “revenge traveling” from Hong Kong, including Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia etc. The booking from HK to Japan increase 10 times since the policy was uplifted. 

Only 5,900 Hong Kong tourist visited Japan in the first eight months of this year, down 99.6% from the same period in 2019, before the pandemic. But more than 10,000 Hong Kong tourist appear to have visited Japan in just one week starting from Oct. 11, reported by Nikkei Asia.

Effective from 6am on September 26, Hong Kong scrapped hotel quarantine for all international arrivals and replaced it by the policy of “0 + 3”, which mean travelers after taking PCR test at airport can take public transport to home or hotel.

On Sep 30, Hong Kong government further relax some social distancing from Oct 6, the suspension mechanism for cruise-to-nowhere itineraries will be lifted, and banquet capacity will be increased from 120 to 240.

As a result of the new “0 + 3” policy, the media reported ANA will fly 4 times a week to Tokyo Haneda airport from Oct. United Airlines plan to resume flying to Hong Kong from San Francisco in 2023 as early as January, and British Airways from coming December.

Reported numbers of Hong Kong residents departing from the airport 30 days before and after Sep 26 were respectively over 120,000 and 180,000, which means an increase of 50%!

According to Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong, present passenger carrying capacity of all airlines in Hong Kong only reach 15% of pre-pandemic level, which expected to rise to around 30% by the end of this year.

Source: China Travel Online, Nikkei Asia