Peregrine Adventures has admitted onerous requirements surrounding visas for Tibet have caused major logistical issues as it attempts to comply with the new regulations.
But the operator insisted travel was still possible to the Chinese territory.
Changes to the entry visas mean permits will only be given to groups of five or more of the same nationality.
It has left operators in Australia, and elsewhere, frantically trying to reorganise tours and group customers based on their nationality (Travel Today, May 17).
Some operators are believed to have cancelled all tours to Tibet.
Peregrine, which was forced to cancel one tour as the group was too small, said the regulations are causing disruption.
“It is creating a lot of work but we have been managing, apart from one tour where we were unable to meet the minimum threshold,” Peregrine destination manager Ken Ismail said. “Tibetan permits are complex and ever changing at the best of times and the new requirements have proven more difficult to facilitate. However, travel is still absolutely still possible and we are still taking many travellers over the next few months and well into next year.
“We are grouping nationalities together.”
But he admitted travellers may need to be “a little flexible” with their travel dates and itinerary as it attempts to group nationalities together.
Ismail said four tours departing in September and October already have enough Australians to satisfy the regulations.
“The situation could change at any time but this is the situation at present,” he said.
