Airline websites swamped as Hong Kong ticket giveaway takes off

People hoping to take advantage of a Hong Kong scheme to give away half a million free airline tickets faced hours-long online queues on Wednesday, as the Asian financial hub bids to woo tourists back. The city in February launched a campaign to reboot its reputation as “Asia’s world city”, after years of strict pandemic-related travel restrictions and a crackdown on sometimes violent pro-democracy protests. On Wednesday, Hong Kong became one of the last places in the world to drop its outdoor mask mandate, which city leader John Lee said is a sign that it was “resuming normalcy”. Tourism once comprised nearly 5% of the city’s economy but visitor figures plunged in 2022 to 600,000 – less than 1% of 2018 levels. Hong Kong-based carriers Cathay Pacific and Hong Kong Airlines were the first companies to launch the government-backed Hello, Hong Kong ticket giveaway, which will be rolled out over several months. Social media users complained of long online queues to register, and an AFP reporter encountered wait times of more than two hours on the Cathay Pacific website. More than 55,000 users were waiting to access the offer, according to the reporter.<br/>