Want To Visit Hong Kong? Half Million Air Tickets For Free: How To Get Them


Over the next six months, starting in March, the city of Hong Kong will be giving away 500,000 air tickets for free as part of its “Hello Hong Kong” campaign to revitalize its tourism sector.

The new global promotional campaign — in the works for more than two years — was launched on February 2 by Hong Kong’s leader, John Lee Ka-chiu, as the city reopens to international travelers.

“Hello Hong Kong” is the result of a government relief package that was given to airlines at the height of the pandemic “to ease their liquidity pressure,” according to the Hong Kong Airport Authority.

“Hong Kong will pay for your plane ticket to visit in 2023,” boasts the headline in Time Out Hong Kong adding that “the Hong Kong tourist board had announced plans to give away half a million free plane tickets, and now it’s finally, officially happening.”

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The tickets had been bought last October to support airlines. “The (Airport Authority) will offer to purchase around 500,000 air tickets in advance from home-based airlines. The purchase will serve the purpose of injecting liquidity into the airlines upfront, while the tickets will be given away to global visitors and Hong Kong residents in the future market recovery campaign to be launched when the pandemic is over,” the Airport Authority explained in its site.

How to get a free ticket

The tickets, costing the city some $255 million, will be distributed through the city’s three carriers: Cathay Pacific, HK Express and Hong Kong Airlines.

Starting on March 1, travelers wanting to visit Hong Kong can enter their names into a flight ticket lottery at the World of Winners international airport page.

The tickets will be allocated in three waves: The first group will go to people across Southeast Asia, from March 1 to April 1. Then it will be the turn for people living in mainland China until May 1, when it will open to residents in the rest of the world.

A further 80,000 free air tickets will be given to Hong Kong residents in the summer, with another 80,000 for those living in the Greater Bay Area.

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Will it help?

The very strict measures imposed on travelling during the pandemic have kept visitors away over the past three years, devastating the tourism sector and its economy. “The city’s GDP last year fell 3.5% from 2021, according to the government’s provisional data,” Euronews writes.

Before the pandemic, Hong Kong saw 56 million visitors in a typical year — more than seven times its population. “By 2022, that number had fallen to about 100,000,” CNN reports.

For skeptics, the relief measures are coming too late. As the rest of the world started reopening early last year, Hong Kong, following mainland China’s tough zero-Covid policies, only began to relax some of its restrictions at the end of 2022, much later than competitors including Singapore, Japan and Taiwan.

Although mandatory quarantine on arrival has been dropped since last September and the border with mainland China opened in January, the recovery of the tourism sector has been very slow.

The optimistic view

Now that the rules have been relaxed further, optimists hope that the campaign will have a cascade effect and that the winners of the free tickets will travel with friends or family, multiplying the number of visitors.

The city is also planning special offers and vouchers among other incentives in the effort to woo tourists back to the international financial hub, racing to catch up with other popular travel destinations in a fierce regional competition.

“One million vouchers worth around $12 each will provide discounts on food, drinks, transport, hotels, retail and attractions. They will be distributed at tourist inquiry counters located at four border checkpoints from 5 pm on 2 February,” reports Time Out Hong Kong.

The city will also host more than 250 events and festivals throughout 2023, from the Hong Kong Marathon to the Clockenflap music festival, Art Basel and Hong Kong Rugby Sevens.

The free tickets and other incentives to be offered to global and local visitors as part of a “market recovery campaign” are expected to help revive Hong Kong’s status as an international business and travel hub.

Still, “for non-Hong Kong residents (aged 12 or above on the day of arrival at Hong Kong) arriving from overseas places, vaccination is required” to enter, according to the government of Hong Kong’s website.

Also wearing masks on public transportation and indoor and outdoor public spaces is mandatory.



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