Hong Kong tourists in protest-hit Bangkok 'safe', travel council says
Traffic the only headache faced by tour groups despite protests sweeping the Thai capital, but security officials still urge caution
More than 1,000 Hongkongers on group tours in Bangkok are safe and trying to steer clear of protest hotspots, the Travel Industry Council has said.
Joseph Tung Yao-chung, the council’s executive director, said the travellers were “safe” and “trying to avoid problem areas”. And while there were no immediate problems in tourist areas in the Thai capital, travel operators were prepared to “change the itinerary to meet the situation” and make the “necessary arrangements” if the situation worsened, Tung said.
The council put the number of affected Hong Kong tour groups in Bangkok at 31, comprising about 1,000 people.
The Security Bureau has advised travellers to be cautious, as demonstrations continue to spread across Bangkok. Protesters have broken into several government ministries and have camped there, in an attempt to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
“We are monitoring [the situation] on a daily basis,” a bureau spokesman, said.
Tung added that traffic was the biggest issue faced by the tour groups, as some parts of Bangkok were rendered inaccessible by the protests.
Since the 2011 Thai floods, Thailand has remained on the Security Bureau’s outbound travel alert, a list of destinations it deems risky. Thailand has a yellow warning – the lowest of three threat assessments.