Hong Kong to launch ‘big’ promotion to lure visitors, city leader says, brushing aside concerns over lack of mainland Chinese tourists after border reopening

Hong Kong authorities will launch a “big” promotional bid next month to lure back visitors, city leader John Lee Ka-chiu has revealed, as he called on residents worried over the trickle of mainland Chinese arrivals to remain patient until numbers picked up after the Lunar New Year holiday.

About 39,800 visitors had crossed into the city using land checkpoints between Sunday and Tuesday afternoon as the two sides resumed quarantine-free travel after three years of pandemic restrictions, amounting to about quarter of the 50,000 daily quota agreed upon by officials.

But Chief Executive Lee cautioned that time was needed for mainland visitors to arrange visas before heading to Hong Kong, and he predicted the numbers would quickly climb after the holiday began later this month.

“A lot of visitors from the mainland need to have the right endorsement for them to come, and the process of endorsements has just started,” he said. “[As that process] gains in speed and in volume, there will be a lot of people coming to Hong Kong.”

Tourism authorities would launch a “big promotion exercise” to attract people and business back to Hong Kong next month, Lee pledged.

“We’ll be working with the tourism sector and also the business sector to make a promotion in that regard,” he said, stopping short of giving details of the plan.

But a government source said a headline event that symbolised “Hong Kong is back” would take place in February, followed by a series of large-scale tourism promotions, major trade shows and sports events targeting both mainland and overseas visitors. The line-up included existing annual drawcards such as the city’s main marathon in February and the Rugby Sevens and Art Basel in March.

Lee noted that some people were not planning trips before Lunar New Year on January 22, which was traditionally a time for family reunions.

“After this, I am sure that things will get to the normal condition,” he said. “Other activities will follow, and these include tourism, exhibitions, retail, catering services. As [there will be a] number of people going both ways, we will see all of these activities coming back very quickly.”

Bulk of travel over Hong Kong-mainland China border since reopening is going north

Concerns had arisen in the lead-up to the resumption of quarantine-free travel that crowds of tourists would bring infections along with them. But on Tuesday, the number of new cases fell below the 10,000 mark for the first time since December 6. Health officials reported 9,379 infections, including 227 imported ones, along with 75 related deaths. The city’s Covid-19 tally stood at 2,790,960, and 12,481 fatalities.

The Tourism Board on Tuesday said it had stepped up promotions in key overseas markets and would soon announce a large-scale promotional campaign.

The board last month said it was working alongside local businesses on a “Hello! Hong Kong” campaign that would offer a range of perks for tourists, including free “welcome drinks” for visitors dining out at more than 100 restaurants and bars across the city.

As announced earlier under the campaign, Hong Kong will also give away 500,000 airline tickets worth HK$2 billion (US$254 million) to entice travellers to visit the city once authorities remove all coronavirus restrictions for arrivals.

Families, friends reunite as Hong Kong-mainland China border reopens after 3 years

On Sunday, finance minister Paul Chan Mo-po said that officials were ready to “go global” to tell good stories about Hong Kong, as the city had lifted almost all of its anti-pandemic measures. He will head to Davos, Switzerland, on Saturday for the World Economic Forum to promote the city’s potential to global leaders.

Chan also said authorities would boost local events and do more to woo tourists, citing the two-day Asian Financial Forum that would begin on Wednesday and the return of international cruise ships to the city in mid-January.

Excluding the airport and ferry terminals, Immigration Department figures showed that 39,774 people entered Hong Kong through land crossings between Sunday and Tuesday 4pm, or 52 per cent of the 76,164 who went in the other direction.

Lee said only 17 per cent of the eight-week quota of slots to cross the border had been booked so far but that showed the city and mainland government had set an appropriate margin to make sure there was sufficient capacity. The two governments would review the quotas after monitoring the situation for a few more days, he added.

Lee was adamant the economic benefits of the border reopening would come and called on the public to take a long-term view of the matter.

“We are not looking at just one or two single days,” he said. “This normal travel between the two places will not just ensure that the activities within the two places can resume. It also means that our international connectivity will increase as well, as overseas visitors can also come into Hong Kong and make their way into the mainland, and vice versa.”

Lee also said the cross-border express rail link, which had started trial runs, was expected to restart operations on Sunday. Authorities will meet the press on Wednesday at the earliest to reveal further details.

Lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun expected that the first train would depart from the high-speed rail terminus in West Kowloon at 8am and would head to the newly added destination of Guangzhou East station. According to his understanding, only short-distance services would be provided initially, such as travelling back and forth from Hong Kong to Shenzhen, Guangzhou and other stations.

Tourism sector representatives on Tuesday predicted only a handful of tour groups would come to Hong Kong from the mainland during the Lunar New Year holiday.

Timothy Chui Ting-pong, executive director of the Hong Kong Tourism Association, said it might take more time to stimulate the city’s economy as mainlanders mostly focused on planning trips back to their Chinese hometown for the coming festival.

Major Hong Kong business group predicts 2023 turnaround, 3.8 per cent growth

“With only around 10 days left until the Lunar New Year, there should be just a single digit of visiting tour groups a day from Guangdong area,” Chui said, predicting that the figures would only go up by February or March.

The Federation of Hong Kong Hotel Owners, meanwhile, said the resumption of quarantine-free travel with the mainland had resulted in more enquiries, but not a significant uptick in bookings.

“There is around a 10 per cent rise in bookings, not by a lot as previously expected,” said Winnie Chan Wun-yin, an association manager at the Federation. “But we hope things will pick up gradually.”