North Korea Has Banned Tourism Because Of Ebola And Now Spring Break Is Ruined

SteveHolt11 years ago

The pansy in charge of the North Korean tourism office, which I assume is a single windowless room the size of a workspace cubicle, has caved to the Ebola media scare and closed the door on North Korean tourism.

From the Daily Mail:

“We have just received official news from our partners in the DPRK that, as of tomorrow, tourists from any country, regardless of where they have recently visited, will not be permitted to enter,” said Gareth Johnson of Young Pioneer Tours, a travel company based in China that runs tours in North Korea.

Ebola, which exists nowhere near North Korea, has spurted up recently in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, but that’s basically the only contaminated area in the U.S. That’s no reason to shut the door on such a vibrant vacation destination as Pyongyang.

Some fun North Korean activities that are now lost on tourists forever (or until the ban is lifted):

• An afternoon at Pyongyang Six Flags

• A tough-mudder through the Demilitarized Zone, where survivors get free T-shirts!

• Watch “Space Jam” on loop with Kim Jong Un

• The seaweed beaches of Hongwon (make sure to grab a delicious beachside bread crumb, a Hongwon beach staple)

• Spend a day volunteering at a North Korean work camp–it’ll feel like a lifetime!

• A romantic night listening to the “Space Jam” soundtrack at the Pyongyang symphony

That’s a week’s worth of activities right there.

You can only imagine how devastating this ban on tourism will be for the North Korean economy. Will it recover? I don’t know. Time to revisit the drawing board for Spring Break 2015..

[via Daily Mail]

Image via @IBTimesUK