China finally abandoned its zero-Covid policy on January 8th, opening its borders to international travel after nearly three years. While some requirements still apply for the rest of the world, travel between the mainland and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau has fully resumed.
Travelers are no longer required to present a negative COVID test taken within 48 hours before their trip, so long as there hasn’t been travel abroad within the previous 7 days. Furthermore, daily quotas are being eliminated. Previously, people who wished to travel from the two regions to the mainland were required to register via an online platform that capped the number of daily visitors to China. Group tours are also being allowed to resume.
Customs checkpoints between China and the two territories are open again. “In order to ensure the safety, order and smoothness of customs clearance and cross-border passenger transport and to further improve the experience of personnel exchanges, the port inspection department and cross-border passenger transport operators have strengthened organization, coordination and dynamic scheduling, so that the ports adjacent to Hong Kong and Macau in the mainland should be opened as much as possible”, a joint statement from the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Offices informed on Friday.
After the February 3rd announcement, searches for round trip tickets between Hong Kong and the mainland increased by seven times on travel website Qunar, according to data from state media China Transportation News. For the special administrative region, people from the mainland make up the majority of tourists, with about 51 million arrivals in 2018, or almost seven times its own population, so the return of mainland tourism is essential to the city’s recovery.
Although Hong Kong mostly mirrored China’s zero-COVID policy throughout the pandemic, the Hong Kong government began scrapping some of its restrictions last year. The city was once Asia’s biggest business hub, but its estimated to have lost about $27 billion due to the travel restrictions, with many residents and businesses moving to Singapore
In a bid to attract tourists and restart its economy, Hong Kong has recently announced it’s giving away 500,000 free plane tickets. Hong Kong leader John Lee promises a visit with “no isolation, no quarantine and no restrictions”. While wearing a mask is still mandatory, Lee has indicated this last measure will also be dropped as soon as flu cases reduce..
