Local travel industry representatives were elated yesterday following the announcement that the 10-day quarantine requirement on people coming from China would be lifted starting Friday.
"This is a very exciting news for Taiwan's travel sector," said Johnson Tseng (曾盛海), chairman of the Taipei Association of Travel Agents (台北市旅行公會). "I think cross-strait tourism will pick up soon."
The number of people traveling between China and Taiwan fell by more than 80 percent between April and June compared to the same period last year, Tseng said. Last year, the local travel sector earned up to NT$3.6 million in revenues from cross-strait tourism, Tseng said.
While few Chinese nationals are allowed to vacation in Taiwan, a large number of Taiwanese visit China and were subject to the home-quarantine requirements upon their return.
The nation's two international carriers are also expected to restore all flights to Hong Kong and Macau this month.
"We think the demand for cross-strait travel will rebound soon," said Joseph Wu (
China Airlines operates six to eight flights to Hong Kong every day and may offer up to 12 flights in the near future to cater to the potentially high demand this season, Wu said.
EVA Airways Corp (
To capitalize on the lucrative travel market, local travel agency Easy Trip (中信旅行社) yesterday announced several deals on trips to China. The Taipei-based firm offers a five-day trip to Shanghai including air ticket and hotel accommodation for as little as NT$5,999 per person, a company salesperson said.
The special package will last until the middle of this month and is only available to ROC passport holders, she said.
Taiwanese businessmen in China who were avoiding returning because of quarantine were also relieved that the requirement was being dropped.
"Many Taiwanese in Shanghai have been craving to go home since late April," said Chang Fu-mei (
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last