Coronavirus: flight tickets, staycations, theme park deals among potential freebies from business sector to boost Hong Kong vaccination rate

Businesses in Hong Kong will offer a raft of freebies ranging from flight tickets, staycation packages and theme park visits to deals for buffets and films to entice residents into getting vaccinated against Covid-19 amid the city’s sluggish inoculation rate.

The revelation by Executive Council member Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung came a day after the Post reported that billionaire Michael Kadoorie’s Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels (HSH), which runs the luxurious Peninsula Hotels chain and the iconic Peak Tram, was offering its 1,500-strong workforce cash and benefits to get vaccinated, among similar efforts by other operators in the hospitality and construction sectors.

On Friday, Lam, from the Business and Professionals Alliance, and who also represents the business sector in the legislature, told the press he was bringing together a coalition of businesses to coordinate a bonanza package for vaccinated individuals in Hong Kong.

“The response so far is positive,” he said. “The sector would like to contribute to the effort to get people vaccinated.”

One eye-catching item raised by Lam centred on 500,000 flight tickets that the Airport Authority previously bought to promote tourism once the pandemic eased. Lam said those should be given for free to residents who were already vaccinated, for travel to other Asian destinations that had brought their coronavirus situation under control.

On Thursday, the Post learned that the city’s construction sector, together with the government, would offer tens of thousands of workers on-site vaccinations at venues in Kai Tak on May 27 and 28.