'Govt May Require Tour-goers To Get Jabs Or Tests'

The government is reportedly considering requiring local tour staff and tour-goers to be vaccinated against Covid or tested for the virus, if they want to join tours once they resume.

As the epidemic eases, representatives from the tourism sector met Commerce Secretary Edward Yau on Thursday to discuss conditions under which local tours can restart.

The minister is said to have suggested that tour staff must have received both the required doses of vaccine or be frequently tested, while customers should also be fully inoculated or test negative within 72 hours of the tour.

Freddy Yip from the Travel Agent Owners Association, who did not attend the meeting, told RTHK that he heard of such plans from other industry leaders.

He said the trade is strongly against the proposed measures.

"It cannot work well. If we insist the staff - the drivers and the guides - take the vaccines, probably they'll refuse. We cannot impose or force them to do it," he said.

"The clients as well. I don't think we can ask them to show proof that they’ve been fully vaccinated before joining the tour. And tests also cost money, each time HK$240 ... so who would join? Who would like to book?”

Yip said the anti-epidemic measures adopted by the trade when local tours briefly resumed late last year should be more than enough to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Measures at the time included limiting the number of participants per tour to 30, temperature screening, compulsory mask-wearing and regularly disinfecting coaches.

"In the past, these one-day tours ran pretty well. There was no infection. There was no case [which] happened after joining these one-day tours," Yip noted.

The travel industry has been battered over the past year, with overseas trips made impossible due to global travel restrictions and local tours banned as a result of social gathering restrictions.