Hong Thai Travel Services

Hong Thai Travel Services

Hong Thai Travel exclusive bus (Hokkaido, Japan)
Company type	Tour operator
Industry	Tourism
Founded	1966 (1966) in Hong Kong
Defunct	October 28, 2022 (2022-10-28)
Key people	Jackie Wong, founder

Hong Thai Travel Services
Chinese	康泰旅行社
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Kāngtài Lǚxíngshè Yue: Cantonese Jyutping hong1 taai3 leoi5 hang4 se5

Hong Thai Travel Services (Chinese: 康泰旅行社) was one of the largest travel agencies in Hong Kong. It was founded in 1966 and at its peak had employees in more than 30 sales offices, located in Hong Kong, Macao, China (Guangdong Province), United States, Canada, Thailand and Taiwan.

History

Hong Thai Travel Services was founded in Hong Kong by Jackie Wong See Sum (黃士心) in 1966. Its primary business was booking of airline tickets, ferry tickets and offering services for inbound tourism. Its director was Jackie Wong See Sum and its general manager was his son Jason Wong Chun Tat (黃進達). The father-and-son pair ceased to be primary shareholders in 2011, when they sold Hong Thai's majority of shares to HNA Group, who sold Hong Thai to the Chinese tourism service group Caissa Tosun (凯撒旅业) in a 2019 restructuring.[1] Under the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, Caissa Tosun liquidated Hong Thai in October 2022, citing its negative net asset value of over 68 million Chinese yuan reported by the end of June.[2]

Incident

Main article: Manila hostage crisis

On August 23, 2010, a twelve-hour-long hostage incident on one of the company's buses in Manila, Philippines, occurred.[3] Twenty-five people, part of a tour group from Hong Kong, were taken hostage on a bus by the gunman, Rolando Mendoza, a former police officer.[4][5][6] Eight of them were killed, seven injured while six left the scene unharmed.[7][8] Mendoza was shot in the head and killed by the police. [8]

References

1. "康泰旅行社遭債主入稟清盤 全港尚餘10間分行". Hong Kong Economic Times. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
2. "Parent company to liquidate Hong Kong's iconic Hong Thai Travel Services". The Standard. 2022-10-28. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
3. Gregorio, Ann Rozainne R. (August 24, 2010).Timeline: Manila hostage crisis Archived September 23, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. BusinessWorld.
4. Chong, Dennis (August 26, 2010). "Police may go it alone in deaths probe" Archived October 11, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
5. Carcamo, Dennis (August 23, 2010). "Lim calls for review of Manila hostage-taker's case". The Philippine Star. Manila, Philippines. Archived from the original on May 26, 2024. Retrieved August 23, 2010.
6. Ramos, Marlon (August 27, 2010). "NBI probing who brought hostage-taker to Fort Santiago". Philippine Daily Inquirer.
7. "Manila hostage incident victim name list". Hong Kong's Information Services Department Press Release. August 24, 2010. Archived from the original on June 19, 2012. Retrieved August 24, 2010. – For the names in Chinese, see the versions in Traditional Chinese Archived December 4, 2011, at the Wayback Machine and Simplified Chinese Archived March 16, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
8. Conde, Carlos (August 23, 2010). "Gunman and 8 Hostages Dead in the Philippines". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 26, 2024. Retrieved August 24, 2010.

External links

• Official website Archived 2021-04-21 at the Wayback Machine