Hong Kong’s quota allocated for mainland travel is enough for current demand, the city’s leader said, in a signal the cap won’t be immediately lifted.
(Bloomberg) — Hong Kong’s quota allocated for mainland travel is enough for current demand, the city’s leader said, in a signal the cap won’t be immediately lifted.
Up to 50,000 people are allowed to travel daily into the mainland via land checkpoints, which opened for the first time in three years on Sunday.
Some 90% of the quota has been taken up on Jan. 20 in the run up to the Lunar New Year holidays, while 17% has been reserved for the coming eight weeks overall, Chief Executive John Lee said at a press conference Tuesday. The government will look in the next few days as to whether there is room to adjust the limit, he said.
The government will launch a large promotion campaign next month to encourage tourism and business activities, Lee said.
Hong Kong-China Border Reopening No Quick Fix for Ailing City
Hong Kong struggled under the weight of pandemic controls that cut it off from the mainland, the city’s largest source of visitors and biggest trading partner. The economy likely contracted last year for the third time in four years.
So far travel into the former British colony has been tepid. On Sunday, the city saw just over 5,000 arrivals by mainland visitors. On the same day, more than 36,000 left Hong Kong via land crossings into mainland China and Macau.
Economists have turned more upbeat on the city’s outlook. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 12 economists last week was 3.3% growth for 2023, higher than the 2.7% forecast in a survey of 25 economists in November.
–With assistance from Alfred Liu and Shirley Zhao.
(Updates with more details on quota take-up in third paragraph, economic survey in final paragraph.)
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