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State employees to get credit card for domestic travels

In an effort to boost the nation's lackluster tourism industry, the government has linked up with several banks to offer a credit card that encourages state employees to spend more on local tourism.

The credit card will subsidize government employees' domestic travels and will link up with a system that was launched in June last year.

One problem with the original plan was that travel spending had to be recorded with receipts. The new plan uses credit cards that can only be used at specific outlets.

"We've authorized five local banks to issue the credit card and each government employee can annually claim up to NT$16,000 in domestic travel expenses," said Hsieh Fa-ta (謝發達), a vice chairman at the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD).

The five banks are Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中信銀), E.Sun Commercial Bank(玉山銀行), Grand Commercial Bank (萬通銀行), First Commercial Bank (第一銀行) and the Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行).

With 360,000 employees on the government payroll, the plan could be worth more than NT$5 billion annually to Taiwan's tourism sector.

Furthermore, "it will create about 6,000 new job opportunities, he said."

In mid June Premier Yu Shyi-kun approved the CEPD proposal and the service is slated to kick off on Jan. 1 next year.

"We hope this move will cause more people to travel domestically and thus stimulate tourism," Hsieh added.

While the deal may sound good to most bureaucrats, the fine print may scare some away.

To get the subsidy, government employees can only travel during non-holidays, must stay overnight and are not allowed to spend the subsidy in the county in which they live.

In addition, the subsidy only applies to certain destinations.

"In order to clearly identify the destinations, the Tourism Bureau has introduced a standardized logo," said Chen Jung-Chin (陳榮欽), an official at the Tourism Bureau under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.

As long as they spend at any locations with the "touch your heart" logo, they can claim back from the government subsidy, he added.

More than 7,000 destinations including international hotels, local hotels, resorts, museums, shops, restaurants as well as travel agencies will be included in the project and will display the logo in their windows.

Meanwhile, a travel industry veteran said this policy will benefit tourism in central and southern Taiwan the most.

"With the slow economy and reduced consumer spending, the hotel business in central and southern Taiwan is miserable," said Tseng Sheng-hai (曾盛海), chairman of the Taipei Association of Travel Agents.

He said that many international and local business travelers stay in hotels in the Greater Taipei area during weekdays, while the occupation rate for hotels in southern Taiwan is very low.

In addition, these days people are getting more and more interested in going abroad for vacation, rather than travelling around the country, Tseng said.

"Therefore we are very happy to learn of this incentive and we hope it will successfully stimulate the local market," Tseng said.
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