On 8 January, China finally abandoned its zero-Covid policy, opening its borders to international travel after almost three years. While some requirements still apply for the rest of the world, as of today, travel between the mainland and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao is due to fully resume.
Travellers are no longer required to present a negative test taken within 48 hours before their trip, as long as they did not travel abroad in the 7 previous days. Moreover, daily quotas are being scrapped. Until today, people who wished to travel from the two regions to the mainland had to register on an online platform, that capped the number of daily visitors to China. Group tours are also allowed to resume.
Customs checkpoints between China and the two territories are being reopened, to return to the pre-Covid numbers. “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 announcement was made on 3 February, 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 their return is essential to the city’s recovery.
Although Hong Kong mostly mirrored China’s zero-covid policy throughout the pandemic, it started scrapping some of its restrictions last year. What was once Asia’s biggest business hub, the city is 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 back and restart its economy, the territory has recently announced it is giving away 500,000 free plane tickets, Hong Kong leader John Lee promising 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.
