The head of a local travel association yesterday offered a new strategy to get travelers back on planes: reassure passengers that plane filters do a good job of removing viruses from the air and also offer them health insurance -- in case the filters don't.
The final aspect of the plan -- floated by the Travel Quality Assurance Association (TQAA/
"In order to bring the [outbound tourism] business back, currently the first priority is to rebuild the public's confidence in taking airplanes," said Chen Yi-chuan (
Chen vowed to do that by asking airlines to reassure the public that the air in the passenger cabin of their aircraft is safe.
He also hoped that offering free health insurance could be another practice that would ease fears.
"Travel agencies plan to include up to NT$10 million in medical insurance coverage along with the group tours," Chen said.
He stressed that agencies will pay the insurance fees.
The proposal still needs approval from insurance regulators at the Ministry of Finance, which is expected to reach its conclusion by the end of the month.
Another strategy for boosting travel is to offer discount package tours to areas, which are unaffected by SARS including Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. These regions will be aggressively promoted within the next two months, he said.
According to Chen, the airlines are ready to bargain.
"Since airlines are also suffering from low booking rates, it is not difficult to negotiate super-cheap airfares from them," Chen said.
He refused to estimate how deep the discounts will go, saying "of course, we won't let consumers down."
Phoenix Tours International Inc (
"This is a very low price ? the profit margin is slim," said Su Wei-yu (
Tourism industry sales have sharply declined since last month, falling as much as 90 percent after the first case of SARS was confirmed in Taiwan in March.
In April, about 97 percent of travelers have canceled trips to China, while outbound tourism has plummeted 91.3 percent, according to the Taipei Association of Travel Agents. Despite the price cuts and free insurance, the public was mixed on the tourism plan.
"The medical insurance plan is meaningless, since it would be too late to collect on the insurance once I am infected by SARS," said Frank Hu (胡英泉), 42, father of one and a security company official.
"I am avoiding any outbound travel ? unless it's for business and I don't have a choice," Hu added.
"As long as the price [to uninfected areas] drops to less than half, I am interested in going," said Claire Yang (
According to a travel-industry poll released earlier this month, about 90 percent of Taiwanese citizens expressed hesitation about flying internationally in the coming six months because of the SARS outbreak.
In early April, in an effort to bail out the nation's tourism sector, the government began offering subsidized NT$1 million loans with 4 percent annual interest rates to travel agencies.
Industry representatives have also been pressing the government to delay collection of last year's income taxes.
RSS