A decades-old local travel agency may be forced into bankruptcy by a Danish creditor, highlighting the predicament of the tourism industry amid the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Morning Star Travel Service, a household name in Hong Kong for its overseas package tours, will face a bankruptcy hearing on Mar. 10 next year under a winding-up petition filed by a Danish creditor, V.O.S. Aps. Aps provides package tours in Denmark and various Nordic countries.

The bankruptcy hearing will be held in Hong Kong’s High Court. A phone call by Apple Daily to Morning Star on Friday was picked up by an employee who said the firm is still open for business.

The COVID-19 outbreak has devastated the local tourism sector, generating similar liquidation petitions prior to Morning Star’s.

Earlier this year, the prominent Hong Thai Travel faced a similar liquidation plea after failing to settle a payment with Webport Limited. But Hong Thai then later said it could make the payment, lifting the immediate threat of bankruptcy.

Morning Star Travel Service was set up 48 years ago. It became part of a publicly listed company in the late 1980s, and has changed ownership a few times since then. In 2012, the travel agency business was sold along with other assets to a private investor for HK$138 million ($17.8 million) by its listed parent company.

Three years later the business was sold to another listed company, Fantasia Holdings, for HK$220 million. But Fantasia Holdings subsequently sold the business to a third party for HK$50.4 million, marking a discount of some 70% in its value.

Morning Star received a government subsidy of HK$3.57 million under the government’s COVID-19 business support scheme.

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