Holidays, Hong Kong Residents Choose Holidays Abroad
DDHK. ORG – Long Christmas and New Year holidays, lots of residents Hong Kong choose to travel abroad rather than living in the city. This decision was made after the Amber code requirement was abolished for overseas arrivals.
Dimsumdaily said, more than 20.000 Hongkongers leave the city every day to travel abroad.
Long queues were seen at the airport the last few days. More than 20.000 people leave the city every day.
On the other hand, there are still not many tourists visiting Hong Kong because the easing of the entry quarantine was implemented a little late compared to other cities.
Most international travelers have made their year-end plans early to visit other countries where all anti-epidemic regulations are no longer in effect.
Some restaurant operators have complained that business this year has been worse than last year, and it is estimated that turnover over the Christmas and New Year periods will fall by 50% year-on-year.
The F&B industry criticized Hong Kong's return to normalcy as being too slow, and the easing of entry border measures for overseas visitors to Hong Kong too late.
The latest statistics on the number of people departing from the airport show that since December 20, the number of Hong Kong residents leaving the city exceeded 26.000 for 3 consecutive days, and reached 28.000 on the 22nd.
According to a rough estimate, nearly 200.000 people have left Hong Kong in the last 7 days.
Hong Kong International Airport yesterday continued to be crowded with outbound tourists. The check-in counters of many airlines have long queues from early in the morning.
Timothy Chui Ting-pong, Executive Director of the Hong Kong Tourism Association said that the Christmas holidays are approaching, and the peak period for tourism should be in the last two to three days.
Although the recovery of the local tourism industry will take time, he remains optimistic in the near future. The industry believes that there will be more tourists visiting Hong Kong in 2023.
Reportedly, there will be more international flights to and from Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, leisure travel booking platform Klook released the “2023 Asia-Pacific Tourist Behavior Survey” yesterday. The outbound travel trend is also predicted to continue next year.
As many as 86% of Hong Kong people interviewed plan to travel overseas next year, and a third of them are more eager to make at least two to 4 trips while the travel budget is not decreasing but increasing instead.
Meanwhile, 50% of Hong Kong people plan to increase travel expenses, tending towards retaliatory consumption.
Hong Kong tourists have been rated as one of the highest spending groups in Asia. [DDHK News]
