Cancellation of South Korea tours
With the Security Bureau having issued a Red Outbound Travel Alert for South Korea, the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong (TIC) and most of the travel agents operating South Korea tours met this morning (9 June). During the meeting, the travel agents agreed to cancel package tours which depart between 9 and 30 June (both days inclusive) and whose itineraries include South Korea, with the exception of cruise tours. Specific arrangements are as follows:
| 1. | Tour participants having signed up for package tours before 1 June 2015 | |
| Arrangements will be made in accordance with Directive No. 203 “Cancellation of package tours for reasons beyond control (revised)”, under which affected tour participants may choose either: | ||
| (1) | to be refunded all the money paid (which includes tour fares, Airport Passenger Departure Tax, etc but excludes visa charges) after the deduction of a handling fee (for tours whose duration is five days or fewer, the handling fee must not be more than HK$150; and for tours lasting for six or more days, it must not be more than HK$300); | |
| OR | ||
| (2) | to retain all the tour fares paid for six months without needing to pay any handling fee. | |
| In either of the above cases, if the airlines impose any cancellation charges on grounds of travel agents having cancelled their bookings, the travel agents are allowed to collect such charges from the travellers after written proof is submitted to the TIC and such proof is uploaded to the TIC website (www.tichk.org → “Proof of Cancellation Charges”). | ||
| 2. | Tour participants having signed up for package tours on or after 1 June 2015 | |
| According to Directive No. 223 “Cancellation of package tours for reasons beyond control (revised)”, arrangements will be made in accordance with the tour booking terms and conditions of individual travel agents and travellers will need to contact their travel agents for the actual arrangements such as the amount of the handling fee (if any) to be charged by the travel agents and the cancellation charges to be imposed by the airlines. | ||
| If the airlines impose any cancellation charges on grounds of travel agents having cancelled their bookings, the travel agents are allowed to collect such charges from the travellers after written proof is submitted to the TIC and such proof is uploaded to the TIC website (www.tichk.org → “Proof of Cancellation Charges”). | ||
Travellers who have bought air-plus-hotel packages bound for South Korea or cruise tours may contact their travel agents on their own.
Travellers who have bought travel insurance may contact their insurance companies to learn about their cover in the current situation.
As regards the arrangements for package tours which depart on or after 1 July and whose itineraries include South Korea, the TIC will make an announcement for travel agents operating South Korea tours as soon as they make a decision later.