(TAN): The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) has said the provisional total number of visitor arrivals in 2020 was 3.57 million, a 93.6% drop from 2019.
Arrivals in Hong Kong in January 2020 alone accounted for the majority of the annual total. As Covid-19 started to spread around the world in February, the country limited entry to overseas visitors and introduced stringent quarantine measures from mid-March onwards. Most people arriving in Hong Kong thereafter were visiting family members or travelling for other essential reasons, reducing the number of tourists to almost zero.
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HKTB Chairman Y.K. Pang said: “The tourism industry has been through an extremely tough year. The Hong Kong Tourism Board has renewed its strategies and approach in response to the immense challenges of the pandemic. As visitors could not come to Hong Kong in person, we took the initiative to concentrate on improving the city’s atmosphere and ambience while maintaining its international exposure, so as to attract visitors back to Hong Kong as soon as the Covid-19 situation eases. Looking ahead to 2021, the HKTB is well prepared for the resumption of travel.”
