Hong Kong Begins Slow Reopening With Finance Hub Status at Stake

(Bloomberg) -- At Caprice, a three-starred Michelin restaurant in the Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong, head chef Guillaume Galliot is getting ready to receive his first dinner guests in 15 weeks.

“Everyone is very excited and positive,” said Galliot, who has worked in restaurants across Asia and will use the reopening to launch a new menu. “We are now in full battery mode to reopen.” So are guests -- dinner bookings are full for the next three weeks.

Hong Kong is beginning a slow path back to some sort of normality as the city’s worst Covid outbreak wanes. Gyms and sports facilities reopen on Thursday after being closed since Jan. 7, while restaurants can host diners until 10 p.m., instead of 6 p.m. People will also be able to gather in groups of four, up from two. Further easing of restrictions is expected in May and June if new cases continue to dwindle.

The shift caps a tumultuous few months for the city’s 7.4 million residents. After some of the world’s strictest quarantine rules kept Covid at bay for almost two years, the highly transmissible omicron strain ripped through the financial hub’s defenses to infect millions, according to some estimates. Confusion over repeated government U-turns, including whether to lock residents in their homes or not, helped drive an exodus of expats and locals alike.

Flight Bans

With daily new infections now numbering in the hundreds, rather than the tens of thousands, the focus turns to how far Hong Kong will go in opening up to the rest of the world and whether it can retain its role as an international finance hub. While the city’s outgoing leader Carrie Lam lifted flight bans and reduced hotel quarantine for inbound travelers to seven days from as long as 21 days, airlines are still regularly suspended for carrying three or more passengers found to be infected on arrival.

Hong Kong’s leading candidate for Lam’s job has pledged to maintain the city’s global competitive edge. 

“Hong Kong must expand its international connectivity, establish a more favorable business environment, uphold the value of inclusion, diversity and openness, and further strengthen its competitiveness,” former Chief Secretary John Lee said at a briefing earlier this month. Lee is the sole candidate for the leadership role.

Hong Kong’s restrictions have hurt the economy, with analysts steadily downgrading growth forecasts for the year. Before the pandemic, Hong Kong was one of the most-visited destinations in the world. More than 65 million tourists came to the city in 2018. Last year it was “close to zero,” according to the city’s tourism board.

Border Control

Hong Kong’s restricted borders stand in contrast to a growing number of places in Asia, such as Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, that are taking steps to allow vaccinated travelers to enter freely. Singapore aims to remove all Covid-19 tests for fully-vaccinated visitors “very soon,” possibly in the next few weeks, the nation’s tourism board said this week.

Hong Kong’s ability to open up is likely to be limited unless Beijing changes its approach to Covid. The Chinese Communist Party’s flagship newspaper this week called on the nation to support President Xi Jinping’s Covid Zero strategy, signaling any shift in policy is unlikely even as lockdowns in Shanghai and elsewhere weigh on the economy. 

Other rules, such as the mandatory wearing of masks while exercising and closure of beaches, will be eased in Hong Kong over the next two months provided cases continue to fall, while bars will also be allowed to reopen. Schools restarted face-to-face learning this week.

For now, restaurant owners are looking forward to business.

Danny Yip, owner of the Chairman, which was voted as the best restaurant in Asia by World’s 50 Best Restaurants last year, says the phone is ringing non-stop, emails are flooding in and the online booking system is almost jammed.

“We had booked out till end July half a year ago, but everyone is calling up to confirm, making sure they have seats and asking to increase number of guests,” Yip said. 

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