Hong Kong is to give away 500,000 airline tickets worth almost £225 million in a bid to revive its Covid-hit tourism industry.
The disclosure came as Virgin Atlantic confirmed that its service between London and the Asian hub was being dropped after almost 30 years.
Hong Kong scrapped hotel quarantine restrictions on September 26 and reduced health surveillance from four to three days.
There is now expectation that chief executive John Lee could outline a roadmap to normalisation in his October policy address, according to local reports.
Hong Kong Tourism Board executive director Dane Cheng was reported by the BBC as saying that the free tickets, which were bought to support Hong Kong airlines during the pandemic, will be distributed next year to inbound and outbound travellers by the city’s airport authority.
“The airport authority will finalise the arrangement with airline companies,” he added.
“Once the government announces it will remove all Covid-19 restrictions for inbound travellers, we’ll roll out the advertising campaigns for the free air tickets.”
Airlines serving Hong Kong have been struggling to recover flight schedules with Cathay Pacific expecting to run just a third of its pre-pandemic passenger capacity by the end of the year.
The carrier last month welcomed the removal of hotel quarantine for arriving passengers as helping to boost sentiment for travel, adding that it was “fully committed to rebuilding the connectivity of the Hong Kong aviation hub”.