Worshippers carrying face masks line as much as enter the Wong Tai Sin Temple to burn their first joss sticks in Hong Kong, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023. Metropolis chief John Lee revealed the “Howdy Hong Kong” tourism marketing campaign Thursday and introduced it might embrace the flight ticket giveaway. Bertha Wang, Related Press
Hong Kong desires vacationers again. The federal government is even prepared to pay for 500,000 free flights for vacationers who wish to to come back to town.
Metropolis chief John Lee revealed the “Howdy Hong Kong” tourism marketing campaign Thursday and introduced it might embrace the flight ticket giveaway. Town is hoping to “reverse 4 years of plummeting tourism numbers and to revive the economic system,” The Washington Put up reported.
“This, women and gents, might be the world’s largest welcome ever,” Lee stated throughout the occasion, per The Put up.
Why has Hong Kong misplaced vacationers within the final 4 years?
Town has confronted tough obstacles over the past 4 years. One of the pivotal was the response to the pro-democracy protests in 2019. Demonstrators and police clashed, and a number of the protests was riots that considerably broken components of town. The central authorities responded a yr later with a legislation that allowed legislation enforcement “to criminalize speech and stifle dissent,” and pro-democracy leaders had been arrested throughout that point, The New York Occasions reported.
After which there was the COVID-19 pandemic. Borders had been sealed and strict quarantines and COVID-19 restrictions had been imposed. These have lessened however aren’t gone fully.
Town continues a compulsory indoor and outside masks requirement, and violators who get caught could possibly be fined as much as $1,275, per The Occasions.
If you wish to be one in all ticket winners, right here’s how you can do it, in keeping with CNN. There shall be three rounds of giveaways.
- March 1: Tickets shall be out there to residents of Southeast Asia.
- April 1: Tickets speak in confidence to residents of mainland China.
- Could 1: The remainder of the world can apply for the free tickets.
- July 1: Hong Kong locals can attempt for a number of the metropolis’s tickets for residents to “make up for misplaced journey time,” per CNN.