Hopefulness On Display As Local Tours Resume

Hand sanitiser, water, extra face masks, and excitement – were what some travellers packed for the first local sightseeing trips in as many months.

"We're happy as we haven't been out for a long time. We've been trapped since the Lunar New Year, so we applied for this tour immediately we saw it," said a woman who joined a group of about two dozen people visiting historic buildings in Central on Saturday.

Another woman, a Mrs Wong, said it was the first time for her to head out for leisure activities since February.

Workers in the travel industry had also looked forward to this weekend with the return of local tours.

One coach driver, surnamed Tang, told RTHK that he started his day early by cleaning his tour bus to get it ready to carry passengers again.

"Look at the vehicle, it's bright and shiny," he said while gesturing at his coach.

"Finally we see some hope, tour bus drivers can work again," he added.

But the driver also pointed out that the pandemic has forced many fellow drivers to change to other fields and his part-time driving is not enough to earn him a living.

He urged the government to further ease its limits on tour groups, which are currently capped at 30 guests per group or 100 if all participants test negative or Covid-19 before the trip.

There were about a dozen local tours arranged for this weekend, according to the chairwoman of the Travel Industry Council, Gianna Hsu.

Speaking on a radio programme, Hsu said most of the trips organised for the upcoming 10 days were for smaller groups of under 30 people.

She explained that local tour participants were usually elderly people and they needed more time to adapt to the resumption of local tours under new Covid measures.

Another executive from the Travel Industry Council, Fanny Yeung, told RTHK that she hopes there will be more tours during the May 1 long weekend.

She also called on the government to provide a timetable on the reopening of borders, noting that local tours are not enough for industry members to stay afloat.

She said more than 300 travel agencies have gone under since the start of the pandemic, but with some new registrations by smaller organisers, there are currently about 1,600 travel agencies in Hong Kong.