South Korea's Flight Curbs Not Necessary: Kevin Yeung

Kevin Yeung, the Secretary for Culture, Sports, and Tourism, said on Wednesday that South Korea's new Covid restrictions on flights from the SAR are not necessary.

On Tuesday, South Korea announced that flights from Hong Kong, Macau and the mainland can only land at Incheon airport, and not other places such as Busan and Jeju.

“In general, we want these [Covid] measures [to be] based on science. In the past few weeks, you can see that our situation, for example, the Covid figures have been decreasing, and we have been controlling the pandemic in Hong Kong in a very good manner. I think in the past, we have proved that our measures are very effective," Yeung said.

Johnny So, chairman of the Hong Kong Outbound Tour Operators' Association said on an RTHK programme that the restrictions will have a greater impact on individual travellers than on tour groups.

“Many travellers have booked their hotels already. Now that the flights cannot land [at specific airports], it's still unsure whether they can cancel," So said.

On a commercial radio programme, meanwhile, the executive director of the Travel Industry Council, Fanny Yeung, estimated that around 1,000 Hongkongers planning to travel to South Korea over the Lunar New Year period will be affected by Seoul's move.