Hong Kong schools welcome prospect of return of overseas study tours as hotel quarantine rule axed
- Schools eager to resume overseas trips for pupils after three-year break forced by Covid restrictions
- Study tour agents predict increased business as some schools prepare to send pupils on trips next year
Some Hong Kong schools are planning to restart overseas study tours after a three-year break caused by the Covid-19 pandemic in the wake of Monday’s removal of mandatory hotel quarantine.
Study tour agencies said on Tuesday they expected the number of trips organised for schools could surge, but that some parents might still hesitate to sign up their children because of fears over coronavirus infection risks overseas.
Lee Yi-ying, the head of Kowloon True Light School and treasurer of the Hong Kong Subsidised Secondary School Council, said educational establishments wanted to see overseas trips back on the curriculum.
She said her school was now preparing study tours and hoped to run one to Japan next Easter at the earliest after the country announced it would drop a cap on its daily limit for arrivals next month.
“The weather in April is nice to have study tours, but we need to be cautious about the development of the pandemic in different places,” she said, adding that the school might hold another tour to Britain in the summer break.
But the principal said the school might not purchase flight tickets at present because they wanted to see if prices would go down as more airlines returned to normal services to Hong Kong.
