"There were no tourists at all and the tourism sector was suffering," Yiu said. Even if the border is reopened, the travel business won't be able to resume as quickly, Yiu said. The tourism sector relied on local tours last year, including green lifestyle local tours, spend-to-redeem local tours and "cruise to nowhere" trips. "But we cannot always rely on the local market because local travel is only a small part of our travel business. The help provided by local tours is very limited," Yiu said.

Source: The Standard January 18, 2022 01:16 UTC