Holiday Ayo - The Hong Kong government is now promoting the Hello Hong Kong campaign and offering 500,000 free air tickets. This is done to revive the tourism sector and attract tourists.

The 'Hello Hong Kong' campaign launched on Thursday (2/2) includes 500 thousand free flight tickets for six months starting next March. The plane tickets that are given free of charge are from Cathay Pacific, HK Express, and Hong Kong Airlines.

Tickets will be distributed in stages, starting from Southeast Asia, then China and North Asia, and other parts of the world. Not only for foreign tourists, Hong Kong residents will also get around 80 thousand tickets in the summer.

"The number of tickets for each region is based on the share of traffic and the number of visitors before the pandemic," said Executive Director of the Hong Kong Tourism Board, Dane Cheng, quoted from cnbcindonesia.com, Monday (6/2).

Hong Kong Airport Authority CEO Fred Lam said he hoped the free ticket program would increase the number of visitors. Lam is aiming for a 10 percent increase in the total targeted number of visitors to Hong Kong.

"We hope those who receive tickets will bring two to three more friends and family [to Hong Kong]," Lam said.

"Even though we only distributed 500,000 airline tickets, we believe this will bring more than 1.5 million tourists into Hong Kong," he continued.

Lam said the acquisition of these tickets depended on the authorities of each country.

″[Methods] could include large-scale prize draws, giving it away through first-come-first-served schemes, offering buy one get one free tickets, or through other participations,” explained Lam.

This free flight ticket 'give away' is part of the assistance package that the Hong Kong government is offering to airlines in 2020, namely during the peak of the pandemic. Reportedly, the aid amounted to HK$2 billion or around IDR3.8 trillion (assuming an exchange rate of IDR 1,918/HK$).

Meanwhile, the Hong Kong government has also set aside HK$100 million or around IDR 191.8 billion for the initial phase of the 'Hello Hong Kong' promotion.