Subhechcha Ganguly 
Hong Kong claims it would give away 500,000 aircraft tickets for HK$2 billion ($254.8 million) in a move to resuscitate its Covid-damaged tourist industry.To maximise the benefits of the tickets, they may be released in the fourth quarter of this year rather than early next year. This is because Western tourists are unlikely to spend a lot of money in the city because their nations may subsequently go through a recession.Several of the city’s coronavirus rules have recently been loosened. However, major airlines are working hard to get their flight schedules back to where they were before the outbreak.
The situation in Ukraine has caused complications for British airline Virgin Atlantic, which announced on Wednesday that it will stop operating in Hong Kong. “The agreement with the airline firms will be finalised by the airport authority. We’ll launch the advertising campaigns for the complimentary airline tickets as soon as the government declares that it will abolish all Covid-19 limitations for incoming travellers “The Hong Kong Tourism Board’s executive director, Dane Cheng, said. Mr. Cheng noted that the city’s airport authorities will provide both inbound and outbound travellers with the complimentary tickets, which were purchased to support Hong Kong airlines during the pandemic.
The acquisition will function as an upfront injection of capital into the airlines, and the tickets will be distributed to foreign tourists and Hong Kong residents as part of a market recovery programme.The most recent statistics provided by the tourism board show that between January and August 2022, just over 183,600 persons travelled to Hong Kong. Even while that is a huge increase over the previous year, the BBC reports that it is still far behind the pre-pandemic figures of 56 million in 2019.The government of Hong Kong said last month that it will no longer require visitors to the city to undergo hotel quarantine or to demonstrate a negative Covid test before to boarding flights to Hong Kong.
