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Hong Kong travel bubbles

Hong Kong travel bubbles
Latest news and updates about discussions to create travel bubbles between Hong Kong and destinations where residents have been vaccinated, which would allow possible exemptions from quarantine. Hong Kong and Singapore agreed in principle to form a travel bubble late last year but it was postponed.
Travellers arrive at Hong Kong International Airport. Photo: SCMP
Coronavirus Hong Kong

Hong Kong further eases isolation rules but other Covid measures stay in place

Residents and arrivals infected with Covid-19 will be allowed to leave isolation on the fifth day if they test negative for two days in a row beforehand.

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Hong Kong reopens

Group tour visitors in Hong Kong for fewer than 4 days will only do 1 PCR test

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Coronavirus pandemic

Editorial | Calmer waters for the return of Hong Kong cruise ships

Hong Kong property

Emigration wave: where Hong Kong school enrolments drop, home rents follow

Hong Kong districts with shrinking student populations have registered the biggest declines in home rents since January 2020, showing the ‘negative and lasting’ impact of a net outflow of people.

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A view of Quarry Bay and Taikoo Shing on Hong Kong Island, pictured on March 16, 2021. The area has seen the largest rent declines in the city since the pandemic began. Photo: SCMP/Martin Chan
Luxury Hotels

Hong Kong hotelier wants curbs lifted as industry regains mojo elsewhere

Ovolo Hotels founder Girish Jhunjhnuwala says that Hong Kong must allow restriction-free travel as the rest of the world has. In the meantime, he is plotting the group’s expansion in Asia-Pacific and Europe.

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Coronavirus pandemic: All stories

Video | HK health chief on quarantine cuts

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Luxury Hotels

Covid-19 among toughest challenges yet for ‘grand old dame’ The Peninsula

Known as the “grand old dame”, The Peninsula Hong Kong has withstood several tumultuous periods throughout its more than 90-year history. But the Covid-19 pandemic is the toughest challenge the iconic hotel and its operator have faced yet, a top executive said.

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The Peninsula in Hong Kong. Photo: Getty Images
Coronavirus Hong Kong

Editorial | Covid-19 review has to offer suffering Hong Kong hope

Core features of antivirus strategy, including flight bans, school suspensions, quarantine rules and planned mass testing exercise, will be reconsidered.

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Coronavirus Hong Kong

Letters | How Hong Kong’s private hospitals can step up amid the fifth wave

Readers discuss private hospitals’ response to the pandemic, and arrangements for the city’s university entrance exams.

Luxury Hotels

Why are Hong Kong’s half-empty hotels reluctant to offer quarantine?

For the 320 licensed hotels in one of Asia’s busiest hubs for business travel and tourism, Hong Kong’s zero-Covid approach may sound the death knell for an industry that hired as many as 34,606 people last September.

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Coronavirus Hong Kong: will the Omicron surge turn half-empty hotels into quarantine centres?
Coronavirus Hong Kong

Shades Off | Who knew a ‘dim sum ban’ was all it would take to get elderly vaccinated?

Hong Kong’s elderly should have been first in line to get vaccinated but repeated calls fell on deaf ears – until, that is, a restaurant ban was announced. If only authorities had realised that sooner, Hong Kong would be in a much better position to deal with Omicron.

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Customers enjoy a meal at the London Restaurant in Mong Kok on January 4. Photo: Sam Tsang
Coronavirus Hong Kong

Opinion | Hong Kong must now rethink its zero-Covid strategy

Sealing off the city helped save lives early on and bought people time to get vaccinated, but it also made us complacent. Now, the arrival of the Omicron variant means compulsory testing and quarantines are no longer practical, and it may be time to rejoin the world.

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Tourism

Tough travel rules ensure no Asian cities in top 10 tourist destinations

Paris and other European cities dominate the list compiled by Euromonitor International, owing to their more relaxed travel policies amid the pandemic.

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Coronavirus pandemic

Editorial | More clarity needed on Hong Kong pilots and aircrew

It is still not entirely clear whether they can go out and about or are confined to their rooms because of Covid-19 when they fly between locations.

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Two Cathay Pacific cargo pilots, including one with a teacher-wife and two children at Discovery Bay International School, returned from Frankfurt testing positive for a strain of the Delta variant. Photo: K.Y. Cheng
Banking & finance

Global financial firms pressure Hong Kong to lift quarantine rules

International asset managers and banks urge Financial Secretary Paul Chan to provide a road map of how the city plans to resume normal operations like other financial centres.

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Inbound travellers arriving at Hong Kong International Airport getting in queue to be transported to quarantine hotels in the city on 2 September 2021. Photo: Dickson Lee
Coronavirus Hong Kong

Opinion | Unlike Singapore, Hong Kong might be stuck with ‘zero Covid’

Hong Kong has a zero-tolerance policy like the mainland, but it lacks the domestic economy to thrive in isolation and the autonomy to change course. Singapore is opening up and could profit if Hong Kong remains hermetically sealed off.

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Coronavirus Hong Kong

Letters | Why Hong Kong should focus on opening to the world first

Readers argue against fixating on quarantine-free travel to the mainland, worry that Hong Kong’s prolonged isolation hurts its economy and reputation, and urge the government to explain the deeper reasons behind the current quarantine policy.

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Coronavirus pandemic

Hong Kong considering Macau’s suspension mechanism for quarantine-free travel

Government adviser says city can look into Macau’s system with mainland China, where quarantine-free travel is stopped if one Covid-19 infection is found in the community.

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A traveller at the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge. Discussions on how to resume quarantine-free travel have increased in recent weeks. Photo: Sam Tsang
Asia travel

Video | Welcome to HK, Asia’s ‘walled city’

Tourism

Opinion | Accept the reality: carefree holidays won’t be returning any time soon

We are being slowly shoehorned into a highly restrictive travel regime that will become institutionalised. The rediscovery of home has its own rewards as those who go abroad will face increasingly tedious procedures, higher costs and long quarantines.

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Coronavirus pandemic

Editorial | Cross-border steps in right direction, but Covid-19 experts need to talk

As Hong Kong marks more than 21 days with no local Covid-19 infections, the question is when will quarantine-free travel be able to resume?

People register for a lottery in a Grand Central residential building complex in Hong Kong. Photo: AP
Tourism

Hong Kong’s ‘cruises to nowhere’ operator to lobby for higher on-board capacity

The president of Genting Cruise Lines, currently the only operator for such trips, says 20,000 people have taken part in the cruises since the end of July.

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Since the end of July, some 20,000 people have taken “cruises to nowhere” aboard the Genting Dream (pictured). Photo: Martin Chan
Coronavirus Hong Kong

Hong Kong travellers on their nightmares after quarantine rule change

Hong Kong’s sudden change to quarantine rules has left travellers stranded around the world. Four returning travellers share their horror stories trying to rearrange flights and hotels.

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Coronavirus pandemic

Hong Kong ‘no longer’ in travel talks with others, goal is zero Covid-19 cases

Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan says Hongkongers have expectation of government to keep city Covid-19 free, and approach of other places is not compatible with goal of ‘zero infections’.

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Hong Kong-Singapore travel bubble

Differing Covid-19 tactics dashed hopes of Singapore travel bubble: Hong Kong

Contrasting tactics for dealing with the coronavirus crisis were the downfall of plans for bilateral quarantine-free travel, Hong Kong government says.

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The long-running saga of whether Hong Kong and Singapore will launch a travel bubble looks to have ended with a decision to abandon talks for good. Photo: EPA-EFE
Coronavirus Hong Kong

Hong Kong quarantine U-turn a sucker punch for battered hotels sector

The return of more stringent travel restrictions in Hong Kong is likely to weigh on the city’s battered hotels sector, which is likely to record among the slowest recoveries in Asia, analysts said.

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A hotel in Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui East district. The city’s borders have been largely shut since early 2020, barring tourists and visitors from coming. Photo: Sam Tsang
Japan

Hong Kong-Japan ties will survive national security law and Covid-19, Tokyo envoy says

Outgoing Japanese Consul General Mitsuhiro Wada called for an easing of border restrictions in the Greater Bay Area and said Tokyo’s stance is that Hong Kong ‘develops in a democratic and stable manner’.

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Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

Letters | Olympic history shows sports and politics are intertwined

Readers discuss the Olympics games, Covid-19 hardships in Hong Kong and the mainland, and Chinese reactions to the call for baby-boosting slogans.

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