Hong Kong hit hardest by global collapse of travel as tough restrictions see 95 per cent drop in visitors
The global pandemic has hit Hong Kong’s travel sector harder than any other country in the world, as the country’s tough travel restrictions have seen a 95 per cent drop in the number of visitors.
The value generated by Hong Kong’s travel sector dropped 75 per cent between 2019 and 2020, analysis from Compare the Market shows.
The 75 per cent contraction has seen Hong Kong suffer a sharper decline in revenues from its tourism industry than any other country in the world.
In 2019, Hong Kong’s travel sector contributed 12 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP). Hong Kong’s travel sector contributed to just 3 per cent of Hong Kong’s GDP the following year.
The decimation of Hong Kong’s travel sector comes as the country has pursued a hard-line “zero Covid” policy, which has seen the country ban flights from eight countries including Britain and the United States.
Protests in the city state have also deterred tourists and visitors, as part of a shift which has seen visitor numbers drop from heights of 51.04m in 2018, to 43.77m in 2019, and just 2.71m in 2020.
In 2019, Hong Kong’s travel sector contributed $45bn to the country’s economy, the figures show. In 2018, the sector employed around 257,000 Hong Kong citizens, according to figures from the Hong Kong government.
The figures from the World Travel & Tourism Council show that Ireland has experienced a 71.4 per cent drop in revenues from its tourism sector, while Fiji has seen revenues from its travel sector plummet 65.9 per cent.
The figures show that Fiji has been particularly hard hit by the drop in the number of visitors, due to its heavy reliance on the sector. While Fiji generated almost a third (32 per cent) of its GDP from tourism in 2019, the island nation generated 10.9 per cent of its GDP from tourism the following year.
The UK’s travel sector revenues dropped 58.4 per cent, making it the eighth hardest hit country in the world. For reference, the UK generated 10.1 per cent of its GDP from the travel sector in 2019 compared to just 4.2 per cent in 2020.
Meanwhile, Brazil (-28.6 per cent), which has taken a laissez faire approach to the global pandemic, suffered the smallest hit to its travel sector, followed by India (-31.9 per cent) and Chile (-33.3 per cent).