No, because China is still pursuing Covid Zero and so must Hong Kong as well.

Even those Talibans in NZ have given up on that approach. Can't accuse China of not going all in on whatever strategy or initiative they pursue, consequences be damned.

The speech this week was clear: opening up internationally is not on the radar. It was equally clear that if they believe further restrictions on international entries will impress Beijing, then there will be further restrictions.

The speech could not possibly have been more discouraging.

Seems like Pacific countries don't feel too much pressure from the tourism industry to open up.

There was some brief mention that Australian tourist industry are hoping for opening to international tourists by March but otherwise, there doesn't seem to be much pressure.

Europe opened up to tourism this summer, from a limited set of countries. They went through a big delta wave but for the most part, stayed open to tourism and now the case rates are going down.

I don't think their hospitalization or death rates were as high as in the winter wave.

It might be a tougher proposition for places like Singapore, HK, Australia, NZ because they've kept infection rates way down. While they have scaled up vaccination rates, their populations haven't had as many infections, so they have to hope their vaccination rates are high enough and effective enough to prevent a big wave if they should open up.

OTOH, places like Hawaii has seen very little infections from tourism. It's mostly been community spread or Hawaiian residents going to mainland US and then bringing back infections.

So these Pacific Rim countries may find that their own residents going abroad and coming back are bigger risks than foreign tourists.

But as folks keep asking again and again, what is the end-game with a zero-Covid strategy? There is none so far as I can see. That's why this week's speech was so disheartening.

Ok funny you mention it, I'm pretty sure the Taliban didn't quarantine for 3 weeks in a hotel when they went to China in July.

Any link to this speech/media coverage? Thanks.

Read it and weep.

https://www.thestandard.com.hk/secti...d-top-priority

Well there isn't. But as discussed at length in the China forum, Beijing is staking their legacy on "we did Covid better than every other country". Which means it's now a political issue.
The mainland population seems to be relatively convinced that Covid is Black Death so they're supportive of it.

It's very sad. It can simply be summarized as Beijing exerting control over Hong Kong.

The end game of Zero Covid is XJP getting term number 3. Nothing will change until that happens as the public is petrified of Covid in China. HK will follow whatever the mainland and wants it to do. Hence, HK will be the last place to open up and they will do it simultaneously with the mainland. Early 2023 is my bet.

People in HK and will, however, be able to enjoy the delights of Shenzhen and Shanghai after the Olympics.

We had planned to stop for 2 days in Hong Kong in January but that looks unlikely now.
The situation looks beak for China opening and by extension Hong Kong. It will probably only get worse once Covid evades China's control during the Olympics and starts spreading in a population with close to no real protection.
I was kind of thinking allowing more travel into Honk Kong before the games would be a good setup for the inevitable blame game. They could blame it on the looser measures of Hong Kong being the cause of it all.

Extremely disappointing. While I'm not unfamiliar with the HK & PRC dynamics, it had never occurred that during my lifetime I'd ever lose my freedom to travel and do business in HK at my leisure and on a whim. If I had known, I surely would never have taken that break from visiting.

Yup, HK was the first trip disrupted by the pandemic for me. Had a CX award to HK and Thailand for February 2020 and I chose not to go, lost a couple of thousand, didn't think to ask for hotel credits or anything.

Now who knows if we'll ever be able to return.

I'd like to return before it's inevitably assimilated into the collective.

I also didn't go to HK for Lunar New Year early in 2021 because of this odd new virus starting to spread in China. Now I wish that I had gone because I don't see how HK ever reopens if the primary goal is to impress the PRC leaders.

I miss HK so much. Who would have ever dreamed this scenario.

Zero covid is impossible for a country of that size with borders . . . how does the Olympics take place?

Does anyone know where one can get updated TIMATIC information for HK? The map on https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/world.php gives me mainland only when clicking on HK.

For some reason IATA has done its level best to make its site difficult to use. I've given up on it.