Coronavirus: Hong Kong tourist arrival numbers go into free fall amid cross-border restrictions to tackle deadly outbreak
- Hong Kong government has shut down all but three of the city’s 12 border checkpoints
- In January, there were 53 per cent fewer visitors, at 3.2 million, in Hong Kong compared with the same month last year
The Hong Kong Tourism Board revealed on Friday that the number of mainland Chinese visitors, who accounted for as much as 80 per cent of the city’s total arrivals before the outbreak of the disease now named Covid-19, fell to a daily average of 750 in February.
In January, there were 53 per cent fewer visitors, at 3.2 million, in Hong Kong compared with the same month last year.
This means a daily average of 100,000 people visited the city in January, half the daily average of 200,000 in the first half of 2019. China and short-haul markets such as Taiwan and South Korea were hit hardest, with a drop of more than 50 per cent.
As the outbreak deepened in late January, many airlines suspended or reduced flights to Hong Kong while the government shut down all but three of the 12 border checkpoints. The only checkpoints still operating are Hong Kong International Airport on Lantau Island, Shenzhen Bay Port and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge.
As a result, the city’s average daily arrivals dropped from 130,000 in the lead up to the Lunar New Year holiday on January 25 to 65,000 in late January and 3,000 in February.
Last Saturday, a 14-day mandatory quarantine scheme to tackle the deadly coronavirus took effect.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said at the time the quarantine measures had “drastically reduced” cross-border traffic.