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Stop-sale on Thailand tours

With the Foreign & Commonwealth Office now advising against all but essential travel to the whole of Thailand, UK tour operators are taking heed.

TUI UK and Kuoni UK have both stopped accepting any new bookings for travel to Thailand – TUI for any travel up to 31 May, and Kuoni with a daily review in place, to be extended for as long as FCO advice is not relaxed. Both have also asked their Thai partners not to apply charges for cancellations and no-shows until the situation improves.

Nevertheless, it seems that some holidaymakers at least are still heading for Thai beach resorts – presumably in the hope that the violence in Bangkok doesn’t spill over.

Now, we’re the first to agree that official travel advice errs quite heavily on the side of caution, as of course it must. But given that people are being shot, and no-one’s really too sure what’s going to happen next – with some pessimists warning of a descent into civil war – it does seem foolhardy to travel into the middle of all that just for a holiday.

2 Responses to “Stop-sale on Thailand tours”

  1. Mike Kingdom-Hockings

    Sound advice. Unless there’s a way to get to Phuket without landing in Bangkok first. Even then, I’d say adventurous singles only.

  2. Dave McMahon

    I’m sure there are ways to fly direct to Phuket, Mike. Even so, I wouldn’t want to be flying into any part of a country where there was political violence in the capital on the scale of Bangkok in May. I gather Chiang Mai up in the north saw quite a bit of violence too.

    It seems to be over for now, touch wood, although the BBC reckon that the underlying tensions are still there. I gather there’s still a state of emergency in about 20-odd provinces.

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