Agencies ground all tour trips to Thailand after official warnings

All travel agencies in Beijing have canceled or postponed their trips to Thailand, after the National Tourism Administration prohibited all tour groups to Thailand from Monday due to the crisis in that country.

"We planned to send three to four groups of tourists, more than 100 travelers from Beijing, to Bangkok every day this week for the Water-Sprinkling Festival. But we have canceled all the trips," said Liu Songtao, director of sales and marketing of the China Comfort Travel Group Co Ltd, on Monday.

He told METRO as many as 40 percent of the groups asked for a refund rather than changing or delaying their trips, which represents a big loss for the company's Southeast Asian market.