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Destinations knownLeaving Hong Kong until better times return? Singapore, Thailand or Dubai could prove suitable boltholes, or maybe Vietnam, Fiji - even Finland

A pandemic-record net 71,354 people departed Hong Kong in February, but some will have only done so temporarily until the city’s Covid-19 situation improves

With flight suspensions to many countries, including Australia, Britain and the US, Southeast Asia’s traditional holiday hotspots are again gaining their lustre

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Some 71,354 people left Hong Kong in February, but not all will have done so for good. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 8:45am, 4 Mar 2022

The most important words issued in the past week were not about a feared “large-scale lockdown” in Hong Kong, nor even about the atrocities being committed in Ukraine.

They were these: “The scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human wellbeing and the health of the planet. Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future,” read the final line in the summary of a report provided by Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Why is that relevant in a travel and tourism column? Well, there will be no holidays on a dead planet. The time we have left to maintain some semblance of a civilised society is slipping through our hands like sand in an hourglass.

That said - and with all things being relative - the concerns of Hongkongers, especially those with young families, as the city considers even more stringent Covid-19 measures are understandably acute. Having been subject to two years of restrictions, many need a break. Especially frustrating is that, as the screws tighten at home, so much of the world is getting used to living with Covid-19 and opening back up.

Dubai was heaving with Hong Kong families over the recent half-term, according to a source. Photo: Getty Images

People are leaving Hong Kong. A pandemic-record net 71,354 people departed the city in February, which David Webb, the founder of online database Webb-site, tweeted is “possibly the biggest exodus [seasonal holidays excepted] since 1941 ahead of the Japanese invasion”. How many will return, and when, remains to be seen.