Long awaited holiday after the pandemic
By Leanne Leung
What is “0+3”? This might just be a maths expression to some, but for Hong Kong citizens this phrase means travelling without drastic consequences. The announcement on September 23rd about the implementation of the “0+3” measure on September 26th has urged people to take a step out of Hong Kong. The "0+3” measure implies that people who arrive in Hong Kong no longer need to be quarantined, and within those three days they are detained with minor restrictions. With COVID-19 being around for almost three years now, people have been desperate to leave Hong Kong to travel the world.
There has been a lot of controversy on this topic since not everyone is willing to take the risk of getting COVID-19 when flying to another place. People who have gotten COVID-19 before already know what the symptoms will be, and how it might affect them. While others who haven’t might think that going on vacation is simply not worth putting your health on the line. As the symptoms vary from person to person, everyone will have a different opinion on this issue.
A secondary student from RCHK who chose to stay anonymous has just come back from Japan during the term break. “We knew the chance of getting COVID-19 would be very low because we were very cautious.” They were not very concerned about the risk, as they were confident that they acted very cautiously during the trip.
Right after the "0+3" measure took place, citizens of Hong Kong immediately went online to book tickets to fly abroad. Two popular local airlines, Cathay Pacific and HK Airlines experienced a website crash on the day of the implementation. “Our website is busy due to the high traffic, which may cause longer time in flight search, booking, or receiving itinerary emails,” HK Express announced on September 23rd.
Cathay Pacific's Website Crashes [Image]. (September, 2022). Loyalty Lobby.
With everyone hearing about the latest announcement from the Hong Kong government, people hastily went on the website, to the point where the website crashed. This has proven that people are desperate to take a break and travel.
The most popular tourist destination for Hong Kongers right now is Japan. With Japan’s currency, the yen, having depreciated by nearly 28.29% this year, this makes it easier for tourists to visit. Despite that, a lot of tourist attractions or shops were closed due to businesses being closed during the pandemic when there were hardly any tourists. The staff have been downsized and they are still in the process of hiring, making the tourist services limited.
Although travelling to Japan will make things relatively cheaper, the lack of flights is also a problem. Since the pandemic has stopped a lot of flights, airlines needed to fire pilots and flight attendants. Now with the sudden rise in passengers, airlines are desperate to find more staff, making flights at the moment limited. When things are scarce, their value will increase, so flight tickets are more expensive.
Citizens of Hong Kong could hardly wait for the possibility of the measure “0+0”, and with that even with the “0+3” people were willing to travel despite COVID-19 still affecting other places. At the end of the day, you can get COVID-19 anytime, anywhere even without travelling. This measure has excited and delighted Hong Kong citizens, as they can travel without quarantining.
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