New monthly low for Hong Kong’s battered tourism sector with arrivals plunging to 199,000 – daily average for early 2019
- Closed attractions, sealed borders and travel restrictions hammer struggling sector as city reels from coronavirus pandemic
- Promotion board budgets HK$400 million to keep stakeholders afloat
Hong Kong’s battered tourism sector hit a new low amid the coronavirus epidemic in February when arrivals slumped to 199,000 – the daily average in the first half of last year.
The Tourism Board’s latest statistics showed a drop of more than 96 per cent year-on-year for the period, after the government rolled out measures from February 8 to stem the spread of Covid-19 by closing all but three border checkpoints with mainland China.
For the rest of that month, the average number of tourists coming to the city per day stood at just 3,300, of which only one in five were mainland Chinese, who used to account for about 80 per cent of all Hong Kong’s visitors.
Across the globe, 47 countries and jurisdictions issued advisories against travel to mainland China, with 28 of those including Hong Kong.
“The whole month’s visitor arrivals only account for a day’s total in the first half of last year, which shows how dire the situation is,” Tourism Board executive director Dane Cheng Ting-yat said on Monday. “We will roll out plans to support industry stakeholders.”