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Flight search jumps 90% as HK eases up travel ban

Flight search jumps 90% as HK eases up travel ban

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Shortly after Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam announced that the city will lift a ban on flights from nine countries on 1 April, Expedia.com.hk saw Hongkongers starting to hunt for flights. The online travel platform compared search data on Expedia.com.hk from 21 to 23 March, and 48-hour period after the Hong Kong government announced its plan to open up the city, overall outbound flight searches spiked by 90%.

The top five international destinations by search volume uptake were London (+130%), Bangkok (+120%), Vancouver (+105%), Toronto (+80%) and Tokyo (+75%). The search data also showed that users of the platform were planning trips in less than seven days. Expedia.com.hk believed that travellers are mostly considering destinations providing convenient quarantine free travel requirements. Prior to the announcement, the majority of travellers were searching for week-long to month-long trips.

The platform has also unveiled data on inbound flights. In the same period, the number of searches increased by 285%. More than 25% of the inbound searches were from the UK, followed by the US (15%), Canada (over 10%), Australia (10%) and the Philippines (5%).

The Hong Kong government said on 21 March that will lift a ban on flights from nine countries on 1 April but passengers still need to fulfil certain conditions to enter the city, including having a valid booking at a quarantine hotel. Lam said on the daily press conference that a ban on flights from nine countries, including Australia, Canada, France, India, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, the UK and the US, will be scrapped from 1 April. However, several conditions still apply. Passengers need to be fully vaccinated, tested negative for the virus no more than 48 hours before boarding. They should have a valid booking at a quarantine hotel too.

The quarantine period for passengers arriving from overseas countries will also be shortened to seven days from 14 days if they have negative rapid test results on the sixth and seventh days. The flight ban was introduced on 8 January due to the spread of Omicron variants. Anyone who has been to these countries in the past 14 days is also not allowed to board a flight to the city.

The news came shortly after Hong Kong financial chief Paul Chan's announcement, who said last week the Hong Kong Sevens will take place in November 2022, and the government is planning to host business leaders in the city to rebuild Hong Kong's reputation as an international business hub during the sporting event.



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