Travel industry slams plans to track China trips

A government plan to track Tai-wanese travelers heading to China may encounter resistance from the travel industry because of the great inconvenience it would cause the industry, people close to the situation told the Taipei Times yesterday.

The government is formulating the regulations based on amendments to the Statute Governing the Relations between the People of Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例) which were passed in October. Those amendments require travel agencies or airlines to report information on or the itineraries of passengers heading to China.

According to Johnson Tseng (曾盛海), chairman of the Taipei Association of Travel Agents (台北市旅行公會), the proposed plan is unnecessary.

"Too many people travel frequently from Taiwan to China. For example, the number of cross-strait travellers reached 3.6 million for last year alone, which would make trying to control such movement impractical and unfeasible," Tseng said.

The government's attempt to monitor travel to China is viewed as a retrograde move, another travel industry veteran said.

"It seems that we are going back to the martial law era," said Roget Hsu (許高慶), secretary-general of Travel Agents Association of the ROC (中華民國旅行公會).

Hsu said the tourism industry only offers a service to customers, therefore the government should not impose such obligations on it.

"We are opposed to undertaking such duties as registering passengers' information or itineraries with the authorities, which could increase our operational costs and burdens," he said.

The industry urged the government to draw up supplemental measures, such as subsidies, to pay for such additional work if it insists on implementing the policy.

The Taipei Airlines Association (北市航空運輸公會) also has a negative view of the new regulation.

"Providing the travellers' information by airlines may infringe customers' personal freedom of movement," said Michael Lo (樂大信), the association chairman.

"Besides, travellers' can still bypass the regulations by purchasing tickets to China in other countries or via third places," Lo said.

According to the Mainland Affairs Council, similar regulations have been promulgated since 1997 -- after the government opened up civilian travel to China -- but the earlier regulations were never implemented.

An airline representative said the proposed plan would require airlines to set up new computer systems.

"The only information the airlines have on customers is their names in English as well as the flight details. Airlines would need to alter their computer system to enter the [customers'] names in Chinese and identification numbers," said Roger Han (韓梁中), spokesman for China Airlines Co (華航).

It doesn't appear that airlines in other parts of the world have been asked to follow such rules, and there is a question whether foreign airlines could comply with such regulations, Han said.

"Not every government agency has the authority to ask for passengers' information from air-lines," said Mimi Chen (陳怡瑄), associate manager for corporate communication at Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd.

Chen said lawyers representing several international carriers are studying whether it would be lawful, under the new amendments, for government agencies other than legal or police authorities to require airlines to provide them with customer information.