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A health official checks the temperature of an arrival to Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok as Thailand announced more anti-contagion measures. Photo: AFP

Coronavirus: Hong Kong travel agencies cancel Thailand tours amid fresh confusion over quarantine requirements

  • Thai authorities announce 14-day quarantine and health certification requirements for arrivals from Hong Kong and other ‘dangerous’ areas
  • Amid confusion, two major tour operators cancel trips to Thailand for rest of the month

Two major Hong Kong travel agencies have cancelled tours to Thailand for the rest of the month amid deepening confusion over the country’s quarantine requirements for arrivals from the city and other jurisdictions.

Thai tourism bosses on Monday announced a two-week quarantine for visitors from “dangerous communicable disease areas”, as the aviation authority said those passengers must also present a health certificate before boarding declaring they did not carry a coronavirus risk.

The Hong Kong office of Thailand’s Tourism Authority said all those travelling from South Korea, Italy, Iran and China, including Hong Kong and Macau, “will undergo 14 days [of] quarantine when they enter the kingdom”.

“Details of quarantine procedures will be announced shortly,” the Facebook post read, without specifying when.

“We advise all travellers to consider carefully whether they still want to pursue their journey,” the statement added.

The latest announcement follows days of mixed messages from authorities in Thailand on their anti-contagion measures, including whether self-quarantine was mandatory or simply recommended for those entering the country from areas they classified as dangerous.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand on the same day issued guidelines to airlines running services from the six jurisdictions that their passengers must certify they did not pose a Covid-19 risk.

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Those failing to produce the documentation could be denied boarding, according to the guidelines.

In Hong Kong, the Travel Industry Council’s executive director Alice Chan Cheung Lok-yee said on Monday it had been unable to obtain formal confirmation from the Thai authorities of its quarantine requirements.

Chan said: “The Thai authorities have announced various measures recently. But so far there have not been any reports about Hong Kong tourists facing any problems entering the country. Whether they would like to cancel or postpone their trips, it is up to the tourists.”

Amid the uncertainty, two major travel agencies in Hong Kong – Hong Thai and Wing On Travel – have decided to cancel all tours to Thailand from this week until the end of the month.

In a post on its Facebook page, Hong Thai blamed the lingering “uncertainties over [Thailand’s] requirements for self-quarantine” for the abrupt cancellation of its tours. It said some 300 travellers would be affected.

Worldwide Package Travel Service, or WWPKG, also said it was monitoring the situation and could cancel the trips once there was confirmation of the quarantine requirement.

The travel operator was running about 10 tours to Thailand over the rest of the month, a spokesman said.

The Hong Kong government’s trade office in Bangkok confirmed the aviation authorities’ announcement but did not give a definitive response on the 14-day quarantine, only saying it had noticed the Thai government was “constantly introducing and stepping up measures to contain the epidemic”.

Monday’s new announcements triggered fresh confusion after a week of flip-flopping on quarantine measures from Bangkok.

Early last week, the Thai health minister announced in a post on his Facebook page that all arrivals from 11 countries and regions, including Hong Kong, “must be quarantined for 14 days”, before deleting the post a few hours later.

In the following two days, officials cut the list of affected jurisdictions to six, with Hong Kong still included.

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Last Thursday, a Thai public health ministry spokesman told the press that people arriving from the six designated “dangerous communicable disease areas” would be required to self-quarantine for 14 days at home or in a hotel room.

The following day, however, other ministry officials took a softer line, saying it was only a recommendation.

As of Monday evening, the Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific said in an advisory on its website that passengers arriving in Thailand from China, including Hong Kong and Macau, “may be required to self-quarantine for 14 days upon arrival”.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand in Hong Kong could not be reached for further comment on Monday.

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