Hong Kong’s government says that people arriving in Hong Kong will no longer have to go into mandatory hotel quarantine from Monday.
Travellers will no longer have to show a negative Covid test before boarding a plane to Hong Kong.
Instead, they will monitor themselves for possible infection for three days.
The news sparked a rush for flight tickets to Hong Kong, with the Cathay Pacific website operating a queuing system to book.
Hong Kong has had some of the world’s toughest rules as it follows China’s zero Covid policies.
So its departure from what the mainland is doing is a long-awaited decision. Restrictions on people arriving have been in place for more than two years.
The prolonged closure of its border has hit Hong Kong’s economy hard and left the Asian financial centre at a disadvantage compared with its regional rivals, such as Singapore.
Singapore on Friday unseated city as Asia’s top financial market in the Global Financial Centres Index.
“Hong Kong has been isolated from the international community for two-and-half years and is suffering from it,” Hao Hong, chief economist of Grow Investment Group, told the BBC.
“While the end to hotel quarantine is a step forward, rebuilding confidence takes time, especially against the tide of exodus of talents from Hong Kong.”
“It will take a while before people and businesses respond to the new arrangements and airlines adjust their schedules,” said Louis Kuijs, chief Asia Pacific economist of S&P Global Ratings.
“And a sizeable share of the people and activities that have left Hong Kong in recent years will not come back.”