Interest in visiting Hong Kong has spiked following a long-awaited end to curbs on overseas arrivals, with searches for flights to the city on one popular ticketing site jumping by more than 2,000 per cent against a year ago. Online travel agency Trip.com said queries for flights to Hong Kong shot up on Tuesday, the day the government announced the shift, compared with the same day last year. “The easing of measures in recent months has certainly boosted the recovery of the tourism industry,” it said. “We are optimistic that demand for inbound and outbound travel will continue to rise in the coming months, which will further boost the recovery of the travel industry.” What explains Hong Kong’s sudden switch to a ‘0+0’ Covid scheme? The company reported that it was receiving the most interest in flights to Hong Kong from users in Bangkok, Tokyo, Taipei, Seoul and Osaka. Compared with the same day a week earlier, the site reported a more than 600 per cent increase in Hong Kong flight queries in Bangkok, Tokyo and Osaka, while searches in Seoul and Taipei rose by 908 per cent and 233 per cent respectively. Under Hong Kong’s previous “0+3” entry regime, arrivals were required to undergo a three-day medical surveillance period, which included limited freedom of movement in the city and a ban on entering select premises, such as restaurants and bars. But from Wednesday, they will no longer receive the restrictive amber health code, provided they test negative for the virus upon arrival. As part of the policy change, use of the government’s “Leave Home Safe” risk-exposure app is no longer required to enter all premises, but patrons must still present proof of vaccination to enter designated venues. The lifting of restrictions has gone ahead despite a recent rise in coronavirus cases, with health officials on Saturday logging 15,774 new infections, 813 of which were imported, and 24 more deaths. The city’s Covid-19 tally stands at 2,338,897 cases and 11,131 related fatalities. Despite the local epidemic situation, Trip.com also recorded significant increases in searches for flights to Hong Kong from places with large numbers of overseas residents and locations with strong business ties to the city. Searches for flights to the city from users in Vancouver, Toronto, London and Sydney had increased by more than 100 per cent on Tuesday from a week ago, while similar queries rose more than 400 per cent in Singapore. Hong Kong to send ‘thousands of officers’ to mainland Chinese border checkpoints Queries on the topic increased by 264 per cent and 108 per cent in Beijing and Shanghai, while the overall number of searches for transit flights to mainland China via Hong Kong rose 89 per cent, the site said. Industry insiders and business representatives agreed the eased curbs would bring more tourists, but warned visitor numbers would take time to reach pre-pandemic levels because of limited airline capacity, as well as cross-border travel restrictions between Hong Kong and the mainland. Freddy Yip Hing-ning, president of the Hong Kong Travel Agent Owners Association, said the surge in searches for inbound flights was a promising sign and indicated growing interest among overseas tourists to visit the city. But he cautioned that the figures might not directly translate into how many arrivals would come to Hong Kong, explaining it would take time for most tourists to come back, especially those from the mainland. Yip also said that he estimated it would be a year before the local tourism industry returned to pre-pandemic levels. Lawmaker Perry Yiu Pak-leung, who represents the tourism sector, called the easing of the entry curbs “a big step forward” in the city’s reopening, but said the growth in searches for flights was not surprising given autumn and winter were generally Hong Kong’s peak tourist seasons. The legislator warned visitors would be put off by remaining entry rules, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) screening both upon arrival and on the third day in the city, and mandatory rapid testing for the first five days, as well as limited airline capacities. The current business volume for the tourism industry only amounted to about 10 to 20 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, he said, urging local authorities to further ease entry rules, such as only requiring a PCR test upon arrival. Yiu advised the government to focus on attracting visitors from the mainland instead of overseas travellers, with the former group previously accounting for most of the city’s tourists. Trip.com’s shares surge amid bets the end of zero-Covid will spark travel boom The lawmaker also appealed to authorities over the border to relax curbs on issuing tourist visas for prospective visitors to Hong Kong. “Hopefully with the resumption of quarantine-free cross-border travel and the issuance of tourist visas, we will be able to attract visitors from the Greater Bay Area before and during the Lunar New Year holiday, which will boost local consumption, retail and hotel business,” he said. The bay area is Beijing’s initiative to link Hong Kong, Macau and nine southern Chinese cities into an integrated economic and business hub. Chinese tourists are ‘eager to travel’: where they’ll go and for what According to the Immigration Department, a total of 18,240 people arrived in Hong Kong on Wednesday when the Covid-19 policy change took effect, with residents accounting for about 77 per cent of the inbound travellers. The department logged 20,400 arrivals the day after, and 20,061 and 19,853 on Monday and Tuesday, respectively. The number of visitors to Hong Kong has fallen from 65.1 million in 2018 to just 91,398 last year. The number of arrivals has gradually bounced back as authorities have gradually eased curbs, with the city recording 330,223 visitors between January and October.