Those who travel to China, mainly residents, still face 10 days of hotel quarantine at their own expense.
Big, splashy events in Hong Kong like Art Basel, the Rugby Sevens and regional financial conferences were cancelled as the city remained closed off to nonresidents. It was the starkest admission yet that the strict rules, tied closely to mainland China's pandemic policy, had come at a cost that officials were no longer willing to tolerate.
With borders restricted, tourism has been slow to come back in much of the region. Once a top aviation hub, Hong Kong was"effectively off the map now," Mr Willie Walsh, the director-general of the International Air Transport Association, said in April. Hong Kong International Airport reported just 5,080 passenger flights in August, compared with 30,000 in the same month of 2019.
Japan's reopening could unleash a flood of pent-up travel demand, providing a much-needed boost to the country's travel and hospitality sectors. Almost 32 million international tourists visited Japan in 2019, triple the number from six years before, according to government data. The approach will be tested in the coming weeks, when heads of global banks are expected to converge at a summit promoted as evidence that Hong Kong is still worthy of its self-appointed title as"Asia's World City". It will also host a fintech conference and the Rugby Sevens in November, an annual tournament that was one of the city's biggest events before the pandemic.