Calcutta: Corporate and tourist traffic from Calcutta to Hong Kong has dipped more than 50 per cent in the past year, with airlines and travel agents blaming this on rejection of online pre-arrival registration for visas without allegedly assigning any reason.

The automated system of online applications had been introduced in January 2017 and thousands of rejections have been reported since. Airline officials and travel agents in Calcutta said they had expected the approval rate to improve, but the problems had remained.

Hundreds of tourists who had planned a summer vacation in Hong Kong and Macau have had to cancel their plans and go elsewhere.

Businessman Rajesh Saraf had planned a holiday in Hong Kong with wife Sonam and a friend and had booked return tickets on Thai Airways. They were planning to go on May 24 and return on June 1. Three to four days before they were to travel, Saraf was told that their pre-arrival registration for visas had been rejected.

"I had to cancel everything and rebook for Thailand," said the Ultadanga resident.

Thai Airways is feeling the pinch, too. "We are getting affected by this new policy and are seeing a decline in the number of passengers to Hong Kong by more than 50 per cent. We get requests for refund of tickets," Kris Theerarak, general manager of Thai Airways International in Calcutta, told Metro on Monday. "We have to respect the rules, but hopefully things will get better," he said.

Aviation officials said Cathay Dragon, a subsidiary of Cathay Pacific that operates direct flights between Calcutta and Hong Kong six days a week, has been affected the most in terms of business.

Indians previously did not need visas to enter Hong Kong, a former British colony that became an autonomous administrative region under the People's Republic of China in 1997. But from January 2017, visitors to Hong Kong from India have had to fill in pre-arrival registration forms and submit them online for approval.

"I have applied for pre-registration for my clients with passports from Calcutta, Delhi and Mumbai. While the ones from Mumbai and Delhi are getting approved, most from Calcutta are getting rejected. Now we have stopped selling Hong Kong as a destination," said Anil Punjabi, chairman, east, of the Travel Agents' Federation of India.