The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has just issued a travel warning for agencies not to take Vietnamese tourists to Bangkok and other unstable areas in Thailand.
 

A Vietnamese tourist pouring water to cleanse the Buddha in Thailand.

According to the VNAT, the current political situation in Thailand is still very complicated, and in order to ensure the safety of Vietnamese tourists, it is necessary that our domestic travel agencies cancel all their tours to Bangkok, as well as limit tours to other destinations in Thailand until the situation has become stable. In the meantime, all tourism activities bringing people to Thailand have to be checked and controlled thoroughly.

Many travel agencies, despite having large numbers of customers booking to go to Thailand for the upcoming Hung King's Temple Festival and April 30 - May 1 holidays, had to cancel their tours.

Duong Mail Lan, a Vietravel representative in Hanoi said, "Vietravel has cancelled all our tours to Thailand from April 11 - 18, in order to ensure complete safety for our customers. After April 18, we will decide whether to resume the tours in accordance with the situation."

Other travel agencies, without much of a choice, have also done the same and instead recommended their customers to change their destinations to other places such as Malaysia, Hong Kong and China, or wait until the situation in Thailand has sabilised. Since this is an unforeseen reason, customers who want to cancel their Thailand tours will be fully refunded.