From March, 500,000 tickets will be given away by local airlines Cathay Pacific Airways, HK Express and Hong Kong Airlines. They are distributed in various ways, for example through lotteries and promotions where a second ticket is free.
Hong Kong welcomed just 605,000 tourists last year. In 2019, there were almost 56 million tourists. In the metropolis, where people have only been massively infected with the corona virus since the beginning of 2022, very strict measures were in place to contain the virus, just like in China. Hong Kong leader John Lee pledged “no isolation, no quarantine and no restrictions” at the start of the campaign, dubbed “Hello, Hong Kong.” “Ladies and gentlemen, this is probably the world’s greatest welcome ever.”
Before the pandemic, Hong Kong was facing a major political crisis. In the region, officially an autonomous part of China, large protests took place against the regional government, Beijing’s influence and police brutality. These protests repeatedly turned into violent clashes and were eventually suppressed with a controversial security law.
In 2019, there were fierce protests in Hong Kong that became increasingly grittier:
