Hong Kong is giving away 500,000 free airline tickets

Hong Kong skyline cityscape downtown skyscrapers over Victoria Harbour in the evening with junk tourist ferry boat on sunset with dramatic sky. Hong Kong, China

By James Harrison

The tourism industry of Hong Kong is in the process of giving away 500,000 free airline tickets to attract travellers who’re looking to spend big.

This sponsorship campaign will see the Hong Kong government supply the tickets from various local carriers and is likely to commence in “early 2023,” per the South China Morning Post.

The Airport Authority Hong Kong set aside HK$2 billion (AUD$346.8 million) in 2020 to purchase airline tickets from carriers such as Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong Express and Hong Kong Airlines.

A portion of the tickets will be given to outbound travellers and some will be distributed via travel agents, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB).

Hong Kong lawmaker and Airport Authority board member, Lo Wai-kwok, said the arrangement was yet to be finalised with airlines, but he expected some of the tickets to go to business travellers who would attend the city’s trade shows or conferences.

“It’s like the incentive or promotion programme for exhibitors or buyers who attend a trade show. Usually, they are given free air tickets for coming to Hong Kong to take part in the exhibition,” Lo said.

Lo said that the tickets should be distributed among diverse groups of travellers from a variety of places, including mainland China who accounted for most of Hong Kong’s arrivals in the past.

“The free tickets should benefit those who travel frequently to Hong Kong or have close ties [to the city], whether it’s for business or leisure purposes,” he said, referring to mainland tourists.

“I hope that through this stimulus package, travellers from different parts of the world will come to visit Hong Kong to reboot the economy.”

Travel Industry Council chairwoman Gianna Hsu Wong Mei-lun said she was still in discussions with the Airport Authority and that the number of tickets for inbound travellers would be larger than for outbound, with mainlanders being a strongly targeted group. She also suggested tying the tickets to spending packages to encourage travellers to splurge will in Hong Kong.

“We think that this is not just a giveaway of air tickets. We also hope to create a multiplier effect on different sectors, such as hotels and catering,” she said.

“We don’t want to see travellers being given free tickets and go solo travelling. We need to have a spending package tied to their tickets to ensure that they will loosen their purse strings in various venues in Hong Kong.”

In a bid to get Aussies over to Hong Kong, HKTB recently launched its newest campaign featuring Nick ‘Honey Badger’ Cummins, but it drew heavy criticism from Hong Kong ex-pats living in Australia.

The critics believed that the ads trivialise the province’s human rights abuses, the pro-Beijing government’s crackdown on pro-democracy leaders, media censorship and the jailing of political figures.

The Hong Kong Government ended its mandatory three-day quarantine late last month. Travellers also no longer have to provide a negative PCR test before boarding a plane.

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Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

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