2012 TIBET PERMIT SITUATION UPDATE

Another UPDATE:

In addition to 5 countries which are not permitted to visit Tibet, Vietnam was added to the list of not permitted to visit Tibet counties yesterday, thus there are 6 countries passport holders can't get the permit to visit Tibet, they are UK, Norway, Korea, Austria, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Thanks

There was a post a while ago about Vietnamese not being granted permits!!

As of Now (Summary):

1. Group size : The group does not have to be 5 people or more.
2. Same nationality : Travelers from different countries can now travel together as a group.
3. 6 Countries restriction : 6 countries passport holders can't get the permit to visit Tibet, they are UK, Norway, Korea, Austria, the Philippines and Vietnam.
4. EBC : No foreign groups are permitted to visit the EBC (Mt. Everest base camp).
5. Deposit/Advance : Please contact the agencies for detail.

tisco

HI tisco, Do you think there will any change for uk citizens before mid August?
Mag

the article is written based on the information from the tour operator "explore tibet".

maybe they are just looking for free advertising.

can anyone confirm the new regulations?

We just returned a couple of days ago after a 15 day tour of Tibet . We flew into Lhasa from Kathmandu and drove all the way to Mt. Kailash and then drove back down to Kathmandu via Zhangmu. We saw very few western tourists in Lhasa (just a few Danish and Dutch tourists) and none at all at Kailash. At Kailash there was a 150 person Indian group and a few large Indian groups were on their way in.
We were very lucky to get our permits as we were only 2 people. Things seemed very tense in Lhasa during the 3 days that we spent there with a lot of military presence. On the way to Kailash there were atleast 10 checkpoints who checked our permits and passports.

#534, I'm sure everbrite answered your query already.

#535, That poster has already posted the article about a week ago. I'm like you, I think they are after free advertising going by some of the wording in the article. Explore Tibet is happy to announce that they are now one of the few agencies who can acquire Tibet Travel permits, with no group size limitation, and no mixed nationality limitation—groups of different nationalities can travel together.

The regulations arent quite new but not sure how many weeks ago they came in.

whats the change that the restriction for the 6Countries, will disappear before mid Sep?

As has been said many times, not very likely.

Is there a credible source for the information that 1) British citizens are being denied permits and that 2) Everest Base Camp is closed?

Are there are British citizens out there who can confirmed they've been successful or unsuccessful in recent weeks in obtaining a permit? And any tourists that have or haven't recently been able to visit Everest Base Camp as planned?