To help members understand the details and application procedures of the conditional exemption for licensed travel agents to organise local group tours announced by the Government on 20 October, the TIC organised a webinar on “Conditional exemption for licensed travel agents to organise local group tours” on 22 October. Close to 300 travel agent representatives joined online.

During the first part of the webinar, TIC Senior Manager (Inbound) Ms Fawn Yeung introduced to members the guide to application, the application form and the itinerary registration form. It was followed by a Q&A session, during which TIC Executive Director Mrs Alice Chan answered enquiries from members.

At the webinar, Mrs Chan thanked the Government for granting the conditional exemption for local group tours. She stressed that the arrangement was the result of studies and negotiations conducted by many parties concerned and did not come by easily, and encouraged members to treasure and make the best of the opportunity. She also urged members to strictly adhere to the “Anti-epidemic Undertakings for Local Group Tours” and to seriously implement the anti-epidemic measures in order to safeguard public health, as that would be the only way for the trade to avoid having the exemption arrangement tightened, or even retracted. More importantly, the trade should work together to put the pandemic under control as soon as possible, so that cross-border tourism could be resumed and traders could be given a chance to respite and recover.