Tens of thousands vie for free Cathay Pacific tickets to Hong Kong from Britain, Germany, Switzerland in tourism drive

Tens of thousands of people in Britain, Germany and Switzerland were vying for about 4,500 free tickets to Hong Kong from Cathay Pacific Airways on Tuesday, as part of a government campaign to reboot tourism in the city.

The Hong Kong flagship carrier’s website showed heavy traffic as 70,000 users tried to win a free round-trip, economy-class ticket to the city and back to Britain, with some reporting difficulties in entering the giveaway.

The promotional drive is part of a 700,000-ticket lucky draw handled by local airlines under the government’s “Hello Hong Kong” campaign. The city is aiming to lure more than 1.5 million visitors after three years of pandemic-related travel restrictions.

In the latest round of the ticket giveaway, residents from Britain, Germany and Switzerland were required to sign up for free Cathay membership on the company’s website and answer three quiz questions correctly. Each member is allowed to submit only one entry and must be over 18 years old.

According to the airline’s website, winners will be notified by email on June 5.

The carrier earlier said tickets would be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis from May 9 to May 15, or until all tickets had been handed out. According to the Post’s observations, the tickets were awarded in less than an hour.

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Residents from Britain were offered 3,260 economy-class return tickets, while those from Germany and Switzerland received 900 and 380 tickets, respectively.

United Kingdom residents can depart from either London Heathrow or Manchester airport, while those from Germany and Switzerland can opt for Frankfurt and Zurich airports.

While each winner will receive one economy-class round-trip ticket, they are responsible for paying for tax and surcharges and any rebooking fees. The tickets are valid for six months.

Among those hoping to score a ticket was Naomi Butson, a corporate communications manager, who logged into her Cathay account 45 minutes before the campaign started at 9am London time.

A minute into the campaign, the site indicated there were 32,652 users ahead of her in the queue, with an estimated wait time of one hour.

“With so much negative press about Hong Kong over the last few years, I did not expect to be 30,000 places back. Although my chances are looking slim – I love the fact that so many people want to get to Hong Kong,” said Butson, who lived in the city for six years before moving back to Britain in 2020.

According to the Post’s observations, there were about 70,000 users in the queue seven minutes into the campaign for tickets to Britain.

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A message from Cathay on its website during the campaign window said there were “many people” waiting in queue for registration from Germany, Switzerland and Britain, exceeding the quota for all three countries.

Butson said she diligently hung on for an hour hoping to bag a ticket, but the estimated waiting time did not change from “more than an hour”, despite a message on the airline’s “World of Winners” site saying the quota had been reached “due to popular demand”.

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“I feel quite disappointed not to have got through and I’m curious to know what other users did differently to be successful. I thought it would be easy to navigate but given I entered the queue with more than 30,000 people ahead of me, I’m not so sure!”

A message on the Cathay “World of Winners” site for Germany and Switzerland also said the ticket limit had been reached “due to high demand”.

Earlier rounds of the giveaway were launched to lure visitors from Hong Kong residents to those in the Greater Bay Area to some 26 nations, including Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore and Thailand.