Government Urged To Lift Quarantine To Boost Tourism

A tourism industry representative on Tuesday said the number of Hong Kong people taking overseas vacations should rise under the eased quarantine rules, but that more should be done to attract incoming visitors.

Speaking at a press briefing ahead of the travel expo, the executive director of the Travel Industry Council, Fanny Yeung, said she expects a 20 to 30 percent increase in outbound travellers.

"Hong Kong people love to travel, and they have been hungry to travel for years, so definitely there'll be improvement on the number of outbound travellers," she said.

But she added that the new three-day hotel quarantine arrangement is unlikely to attract more visitors to Hong Kong, as people would prefer to go to places that don't require quarantine.

"Still some of [the visitors] will have hesitation. Another difficulty is that booking a quarantine hotel is not that easy," Yeung said. "Just in case you're infected, then your plan, your subsequent changes will be a lot."

She said in the long run, the only way to revive the tourism trade is to lift all quarantine restrictions.

"Moving forward, I think [for] the travel industry what we expect will be a quarantine-free policy. By that time, I think we can really restart our travel business," she said.

Yeung also urged the government to provide regular subsidies to the tourism sector, to better prepare it for the resumption of unfettered travel in the future.