Hong Kong Eases COVID Travel Restrictions For Tour Groups

Hong Kong has maintained among the strictest COVID restrictions for a lot of the pandemic. Nonetheless, the town is now determining methods to securely reopen its borders to vacationers.

In a welcome transfer, international visitors holding an Amber Code on vaccine cross can go to venues in Hong Kong that enable mask-on actions from at this time, November 17. Plus, travellers in tour teams can enter eating places and different venues throughout the first three days of their go to.

Travellers in tour teams can be exempted from ‘Amber Code’ restrictions

Hong Kong has eradicated a lot of its stringent COVID-19 insurance policies in latest months, together with the mandatory 3-day hotel quarantine. And whereas the town has eased among the pre-departure guidelines, vaccinated travellers should bear a speedy antigen check 24 hours earlier than their departure. As well as, travellers should bear a PCR check on day 2, day 4, and day 6 respectively in accordance with the Hong Kong Tourism Board.

In lieu of the resort quarantine, travellers should proceed to self-monitor for symptoms for 3 days. At the moment, all inbound vacationers holding the Amber Code in vaccine cross are banned from getting into eating places, bars, gyms, and salons. With the most recent growth, travellers in tour teams can be exempted from this ban. These not in teams will nonetheless need to abide by the present guidelines. 

Journey brokers should pre-register journey itineraries

Beneath the brand new preparations, these travelling to Hong Kong in tour teams operated by licensed vacationer guides can be allowed to go to vacationer points of interest. Parks and museums may also throw their doorways open for vacationers in teams. The journey brokers should, nonetheless, pre-register journey itineraries with the Journey Trade Council in Hong Kong. Authorities are additionally taking a look at stress-free the variety of COVID-19 exams for group travellers. The announcement got here after monetary executives attending a high-profile financial summit in Hong Kong expressed disappointment over the restrictions. 

With the financial system tanking, the federal government lastly threw open the town’s doorways in September. However the push to revive Hong Kong, whereas welcome and lengthy overdue, faces many challenges. Whereas the “0+3” requirement shouldn’t be sufficient to drive tourism, the comfort for tour teams would assist Hong Kong to cripple again to normalcy. With applicable preparations, the inbound journey market can resume orderly.

(Principal and featured photographs: Nic Low/Unsplash)

This story first appeared on Lifestyle Asia Kuala Lumpur