By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-01-06 09:46:32 | Updated at 2025-01-07 20:27:19
1 day ago
Hong Kong travel agencies have said they adjusted tour itineraries in South Korea in response to recent protests, with one noting trip inquiries and registrations had dropped by up to 30 per cent.
Steve Huen Kwok-chuen, executive director of EGL Tours, said on Monday the protests and a string of political incidents had no substantial impact on the travel tours organised by his company in the past few weeks.
“But we have skipped some places that we used to visit if protests have broken out,” he told the Post, referring to areas near the Office of the President in Yongsan District and the Sungnyemun Gate in Jung District, where protesters had previously gathered and held rallies.
“Customers all understood the changes of itineraries and we so far have not received any complaints from them,” Huen said, adding that two of his company’s tour groups had just come back to Hong Kong during the early hours of Monday morning.
Tour groups to the country planned for the rest of the month would depart as usual, he said.
South Korea has been in a state of political turmoil since early December, when the now-suspended President Yoon Suk-yeol imposed a short-lived martial law decree that led to his impeachment.
On Saturday and Sunday, thousands of protesters gathered in front of Yoon’s residence and along major roads in Seoul following a failed attempt to arrest him last week.
