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Industry celebrates end of quarantine

Tourism between Taiwan and Hong Kong is expected to pick up after the government drops the 10-day home-quarantine requirement on travelers from Hong Kong and Macau starting today, travel and aviation industry professionals said yesterday.

Eztravel.com (易遊網), the nation's largest online ticketing center, said new orders of tickets to and from Hong Kong tripled yesterday in accordance with the government's policy change.

"We saw a significant order increase after the authorities announced the lifting of the ban yesterday morning," said Stephen Lu (呂新發), an Eztravel executive.

Over the last two months, most visitors had decided not to go to Hong Kong in order to avoid the quarantine, he added.

The ticketing center received nearly 30 new bookings to Hong Kong yesterday, up from the less than 10 bookings per day it received last week. On average, the company took in 200 new reservations daily to Hong Kong before the outbreak.

A Hong Kong travel representative in Taipei was elated yesterday over the news, saying that the territory's competitive edge in shopping and sightseeing could never be changed by SARS.

"We are planning to launch a series of campaigns and offer big discounts on hotels and airline tickets next month," said Jessica Huang (黃莉惠), director of the Hong Kong Tourism Board in Taiwan.

Last year 2.4 million people from Taiwan visited Hong Kong, second only to China's 6.8 million visitors.

With collaboration among travel agencies, airlines and hotels, prices of three-day and two-night packages to Hong Kong may go as low as NT$2,500 per person, half of the original price of NT$5,200 in the same period last year, according to Lu.

The nation's two international carriers are also expected to see a surge in passengers after the lifting of the home-quarantine policy.

"Our Hong Kong route reservation rate for next week has rebounded to 50 percent, while our occupancy load late last month was only some 30 percent," said Roger Han (韓梁中), spokesman for China Airlines Co (華航).

The Hong Kong route accounts for 15 percent of China Airlines' annual sales. The carrier, which offered 12 flights to Hong Kong every day before the SARS outbreak, is now offering only eight flights on the route.

China Airlines is expected to report NT$4.03 billion in sales for last month, down 39.89 percent from the year-earlier level of NT$6.71 billion.

"With increasing business these days, we hope to restore all normal flights by the middle of next month," Han said.

EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) offers four daily flights to Hong Kong, but hopes to return to its regular six daily flights in the near future.

"As long as the government lifts the quarantine requirement on travelers from China, the [Hong Kong route] business will pick up very quickly," said Eric Lin (林司忠), a public-relations official at EVA.

The carrier's sales last month dropped 25.35 percent to NT$3.76 billion from a year ago.

A travel agency representative said Taiwan's tourism sector won't have a big recovery until there are no quarantine requirements for any tourists from any locations.

"The group tours to China business is a cash cow for local travel agencies and therefore we all pray that the day when there are no quarantines will come soon," said Johnson Tseng (曾盛海), chairman of the Taipei Association of Travel Agents (台北市旅行公會).

Under current policy, Taiwanese are required to be quarantined for 10-days after returning from China.

The agencies are scheduled to meet tomorrow to discuss the possible lifting of quarantine requirements for travelers from China.
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