CBN Friday Special丨Countdown to Hong Kong’s borders reopening with mainland on Sunday

(5, 4, 3, 2, 1! Happy New Year! )

Thousands of people gathered along Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui harbourfront to the new year countdown on December 31, 2022. Although the annual fireworks display has not returned for a 4th year in a row this year, the city is less disappointed because it’s now busy prepping for the “big day” this Sunday — a quarantine-free border travel with the mainland, which have been halted for the past three years due to Covid restrictions. 

Some 300 immigration officers launched a trial run at the Hong Kong Macau Ferry Terminal and Lok Ma Chau Spur Line in preparation for the border reopening on Thursday. Cross-boundary buses are undergoing mechanical checks after three years of being idle, and train staff have been summoned to re-familiarize themselves with their work.

The city has recently dropped most of its pandemic measures, including mandatory testing for inbound travelers, the need to show a vaccine pass to enter some venues and restrictions on the size of public gathering. 

And finally, Hong Kong unveiled a much anticipated plan on Thursday to gradually reopen its border with the mainland, mapping its exit from three years of tough restrictions that have dealt a severe blow to the city’s tourism an d businesses. 

Now the “big day” of border travel has officially come down to the last 48 hours. Let’s break down the first phase travel arrangements.

To begin, the government will allow 50,000 Hong Kong travelers – residents and those with overseas passports – to cross into the mainland every day through land crossings. 

A total of seven checkpoints will be operating during the first phase. They include three land borders at Lok Ma Chau spur line, Shenzhen Bay and Man Kam To, which will be subject to a daily quota of 35,000, 10,000 and 5,000 respectively each way.

The administration estimated a separate 10,000 people would head north every day using bridge, ferry or air routes.

Another 60,000 will be permitted to travel from the mainland to Hong Kong, meaning the total daily traffic could reach 120,000.

But these quotas do not apply to travelers simply making the return journey, so if you are a Hong Kong resident returning from the mainland, you will not take up a spot from the mainland quota, and vice versa.

And the high-speed rail that runs from West Kowloon Station to the mainland will not be up and running until January 15 at the earliest, when the second phase is expected to begin.

Both the Hong Kong and Shenzhen governments will each launch an online booking system on Thursday and Friday, respectively.  Hongkongers heading north will need to register with the local government on a first-come, first-served basis, while mainlanders heading to the city are required to secure a slot via the Shenzhen system.

For travelers from both sides, they will have to obtain a negative Covid test result within 48 hours before departure and register it online. The on-site PCR tests are no longer needed.

And mainland authorities said Thursday they are ready to accept travel and business visas for mainlanders to visit Hong Kong, with immigration offices in Shenzhen bustling again.

As Hong Kong moves closer to reopening the border with the mainland, excitement and hopes are all too obvious for residents on both sides of the border. 

Now that the timetable for the easing of border control has confirmed, it is expected to be a small peak of travel to Hong Kong from the mainland during the Spring Festival holidays given current searches for flight tickets and hotels in Hong Kong. 

Searches for travel to Hong Kong surged 379 percent immediately following the announcement, while searches for air tickets between the mainland and Hong Kong increased 287 percent. Searches for Hong Kong hotels rose 163 percent, data from online travel agency LY.com showed, as Hong Kong and Macau are among the most popular travel destinations for mainland residents.

Data from industry information provider VariFlight on Thursday showed a total of 959 flights from the Chinese mainland to Hong Kong in December last year, a year-on-year increase of 149 percent, and an average of 31 flights per day, and the data in January has been climbing.

In Hong Kong, local companies, from retail and trade to logistics, expect business to improve in 2023. Many of them have been preparing for a revival in tourism. 

Cathay Pacific said on Thursday that it will more than double its flights into the Chinese mainland, operating 61 return flights per week between Hong Kong and 13 mainland cities from January 14. This compares with 27 flights per week from Hong Kong to the mainland, and 50 flights per week from the mainland to Hong Kong, that the airline is currently operating. 

The city’s flagship airliner is working actively to resume and add more flights progressively between Hong Kong and the mainland in the coming weeks, with the aim of operating over 100 return flights per week by March.

Hong Kong Disneyland is also counting on the upcoming inflow of mainland tourists. The resort said it will be recruiting 600 more frontline staff next month. The loss-making theme park has been in the red for seven years now. 

In his blog on Sunday, Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po expressed optimism about Hong Kong's economic prospects in 2023 after both the mainland and Hong Kong have optimized anti-COVID measures for inbound travelers, and the two places are moving toward "gradually, orderly and fully" reopening the border in mid-January. 

The past three years have been a difficult period of time for Hong Kong as the pandemic has severely hit one of its pillar industries - tourism, a major source of revenues for Hong Kong. 

Hong Kong's economy contracted in the third quarter of 2022 as GDP fell by 4.5 percent from a year earlier. Total exports of goods plummeted 15.6 percent year-on-year in real terms in the third quarter, worsened by the external environment and disruptions in cross-boundary cargo flows.

Before the pandemic outbreak, tourism made up 4.5 percent of Hong Kong's GDP and employed around 257,000 people in 2018, accounting for 6.6 percent of total employment, according to government figures. 

The total number of visitor arrivals in Hong Kong was 91,000 in 2021, a 97.4 percent drop from the previous year, data from the Hong Kong Tourism Board showed.

And now it’s time to see if the “grand reopening” will bring the magic back in 2023. 

千呼万唤始出来，香港恢复“通关”正式进入最后倒计时阶段。

香港特区行政长官李家超1月5日带领多名官员举行记者会公布，香港与内地将于8日起实施免检疫“通关”，首阶段每天可有6万香港居民经7个海陆空口岸“北上”。

“通关”首阶段，共有7个出入境口岸开放，除现正运作的深圳湾口岸、港珠澳大桥和香港国际机场外，另外4个重新开放的口岸分别为连接深圳福田口岸的落马洲支线、文锦渡口岸、港澳码头以及中国客运码头。

陆路口岸方面，两地每天“北上”和“南下”的人数安排为各5万人，两地居民需各自网上预约口岸和时段。以“北上”为例，香港居民经落马洲支线(福田口岸)、深圳湾口岸和文锦渡口岸入境内地的单日人数安排分别为3.5万人、1万人、5000人。

虽然港人“北上”和内地人“南下”有限额，但在内地的港人返回香港，以及在香港的内地人返回内地，均不限人数。同时，海路口岸、港珠澳大桥和机场也不设人数限制，换言之，只要有机票、船票和车票便可往来两地，使用小客车经港珠澳大桥过关的除外(须预约)。按本身运力算，陆路以外的口岸单日单向的运力约为1万人。

为减低疫情交叉感染风险，双方居民均须在出行前48小时进行新冠病毒核酸检测，结果阴性方能入境。而在春节后，跨境学童将可每天从内地往返香港参与面授课堂，无需预约。

李家超表示，以每日6万人计算，一个月会有近180万港人进入内地，两个月则有360万人，差不多是香港人口的一半。特区政府会与内地相关单位共同确保“通关”安全、有序、顺畅进行。

对于首阶段“通关”安排，高铁西九龙站、罗湖口岸暂不开放。不过特区政府表示，高铁将会不迟于1月15日恢复运作，并将检视首阶段整体情况后，会增加开放口岸的数量和每天过关的人数。

香港居民预约过关的网上预约系统于5日下午6时准时推出，一开通即出现网络拥挤，预约页面显示“在排队中”。1月6日，香港特区政府署理政府资讯科技总监黄志光表示，香港与内地通关的网上预约系统，由5日18时起至6日8时已有超过28.6万人成功预约，预约系统运作畅顺。

据悉，首阶段涵盖1月8日至3月4日共8个星期的预约时段；自本月15日起，每逢星期日上午9时将新增多一个星期的预约时段。

而在深圳方面，1月6日上午9时，“深圳口岸发布”微信公众号也开通了陆路口岸赴港预约通道。深圳各大口岸附近的商户对恢复通关翘首以盼，甚至有不少商户连夜装修，以便能够赶上通关。

自两地有望“通关”消息传出后，香港各界加紧为迎接通关做准备。香港迪士尼表示，通关在即，园方会推出更多旅游项目吸引旅客，并计划招募约600位全职及兼职前线员工，以应付未来乐园的营运需求。

香港迪士尼乐园度假区行政总裁莫伟庭表示，受疫情影响三年期间，乐园推出多个项目供香港本地旅客体验。迪士尼计划未来开放新园区、与更多舞蹈团合作表演，希望吸引更多本地及海外旅客。

为应付重新到访的旅客，香港迪士尼计划2月2日举行招聘日，这将是首次在园内举行招聘日，预计可创造600个全职和兼职的前线职位。迪士尼计划今年下半年推出新项目和魔雪奇缘主题的新园区。

1月5日，国务院联防联控机制综合组发布《关于优化内地与港澳人员往来措施的通知》（以下简称《通知》）明确，自2023年1月8日起，恢复办理内地居民旅游、商务赴香港签注。取消对香港、澳门来往内地航班客座率限制，逐步有序增加航班数量。

消息发布后，到深圳各区出入境服务大厅的人流络绎不绝，尤其是港澳台窗口前一直处于排队状态。为应对较大的人流量，罗湖办证大厅内增设多名工作人员解答市民关于出入境预约手续的问题。

同时，旅游市场反应迅速，各大旅游平台赴港澳机票、酒店搜索热度持续增加。一些旅行社也开始准备香港相关旅游产品。一直以来，香港、澳门是内地居民的热门旅游目的地，随着内地前往港澳的航班不断加密，也吸引着不少游客前往，预计春节假期，港澳游将有望迎来小高峰。

飞猪数据显示，该政策发布后香港的进出港机票搜索量瞬时增长超1.5倍，其中上海、杭州、北京、成都、南京等城市为热门始发地。另据同程旅行数据，香港旅游相关搜索量瞬时上涨379%，内地往返香港的机票搜索量瞬时上涨287%，香港酒店搜索量上涨163%。在携程平台上，自12月27日至今，赴香港的机票预订量环比增长36%；酒店预订间夜量、预订金额均呈现双位数增长；香港在平台上的搜索热度环比增长85%。澳门旅游方面，从去哪儿发布的数据来看，进入12月以来，国际酒店的预订量也逐步走高，其中澳门酒店预订量环比12月初上涨2倍。

随着出入境政策持续优化，航班也在不断加密。据了解，1月9日起，中国东航计划加密武汉-香港航线。在目前每周四执行往返1班的基础上，新增每周一往返1班。同时，海口美兰国际机场方面表示，为满足海口、香港两地旅客的出行需求，2022年12月25日起，美兰机场加密海口往返香港客运航线至一周3班。

另外，1月8日起，国泰航空香港至北京首都国际机场的客运航班将由每周3班增至每周10班，北京至香港的客运航班由每周7班增至每周10班。往来上海与香港的航班增至每日3班。国泰航空也将恢复香港前往广州的客运服务，提供每周5班往来广州与香港的双向载客服务。航班的密集加密也为港澳旅游市场提供了更多便利与空间。

携程研究院战略研究中心高级研究员沈佳旎认为，内地游客已与香港暌违三年之久，目前两地恢复通关在即，叠加春节出行预订窗口期，预计香港旅游业将于春节前夕迎来一波显著的复苏势头。香港极具特色的购物、美食、展览等亮点，将让香港继续成为内地以及海外旅客乐于选择的热门目的地。

Executive Editor: Sonia YU

Editor: LI Yanxia

Host: Stephanie LI

Writer: Stephanie LI 

Sound Editor: Stephanie LI

Graphic Designer: ZHENG Wenjing, LIAO Yuanni

Produced by 21st Century Business Herald Dept. of Overseas News.

Presented by SFC

编委:  于晓娜

策划、编辑：李艳霞 

播音：李莹亮

撰稿：李莹亮

音频制作：李莹亮

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