China News Agency, Beijing, January 8 (Reporter Zhang Xiaoxi) Starting from January 8, policies such as the cancellation of entry nucleic acid testing and centralized isolation in mainland China, and the optimization of measures for personnel exchanges between the mainland and Hong Kong and Macao have officially come into effect.
A reporter from China News Agency learned from various sources that Hong Kong and Macau may become "early adopters" for mainland tourists to travel abroad during the Spring Festival, and the number of air ticket bookings from the mainland to Hong Kong has increased exponentially.
The reporter learned from the online travel platform Qunar.com on the 8th that the number of air ticket bookings to Hong Kong from December 27, 2022 to January 7, 2023 has more than tripled compared to November 26 to December 7, 2022.
Among them, the bookings of air tickets from the mainland to Hong Kong increased by 3.8 times from the previous month, and the popular departure places were Chengdu, Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, and Xiamen; the bookings from other regions to Hong Kong also increased by 3.2 times from the previous month.
According to Qunar.com, since January 5, when the Comprehensive Team of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council issued the "Notice on Optimizing Measures for Personnel Exchanges Between the Mainland and Hong Kong and Macau", the number of Hong Kong hotel reservations for Spring Festival stays on the platform has increased by 153% compared with the same period last month. The number of hotel room nights booked in Macau in December 2022 (the number of rooms multiplied by the number of days stayed) has exceeded that of the same period in 2019.
According to data released by another travel platform Ctrip on the 8th, on January 5 alone, Trip.com Hong Kong station users’ bookings for flights from Hong Kong to the Mainland increased by 290% compared with the same day last month, and the bookings for Mainland hotels increased by 166%. .
The enthusiasm of mainland tourists to go to Hong Kong is also on the rise. From January 5th to January 7th, the order volume of mainland users booking flights to Hong Kong on this platform increased by 190% compared with the same period last month.
"The mainland market has huge tourism potential." Many interviewed Hong Kong tourism industry professionals said frankly that mainland tourists are a customer group that Hong Kong's tourism industry attaches great importance to. Bring new vitality to Hong Kong's tourism industry.
In addition, according to data from Qunar.com, since the launch of ferry tickets for Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao regions on January 6, the search volume for Hong Kong-Shenzhen ferry tickets has increased by more than 50% every hour.
The "customs clearance" between Hong Kong and the mainland may also accelerate the booking of air tickets for the Spring Festival travel in Shenzhen and the entire Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. nearly doubled.
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