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Travel agents fear relaxing rules will damage business

Travel agencies said yesterday they were worried that allowing Chinese citizens to tour Taiwan individually might undermine national security and social order.

Johnson Tseng (曾盛海), chairman of the Republic of China Travel Agency Association, said the government's decision to abolish the requirement that Chinese must arrive and leave in groups is generally welcomed as a "positive and constructive policy."

The government allows Chinese citizens to visit Taiwan only if they live outside China.

Tseng said Taiwan's travel agencies do not think that the government should allow Chinese tourists to make their own travel arrangements.

More precisely, he claimed that it would be "dangerous" for Taiwan to allow Chinese citizens to buy air tickets and make hotel reservations by themselves without paying a Taiwanese travel agency to do it for them.

According to Tseng, it would be hard for the government to monitor the activities of Chinese tourists if they were not traveling in a tour group. Chinese tourists can also visit more attractions than those traveling alone, he added.

Tseng made the remarks after the Executive Yuan decided on Monday to abolish the requirement that Chinese tourists must arrive and leave Taiwan in groups.

The government plans to attract 3.2 million foreign visitors -- including 200,000 Chinese -- this year.

About 170,000 overseas Chinese visited Taiwan in 2002 for sightseeing, but the number plunged to 130,000 last year, mainly because of SARS.

Members of the association are also looking forward to an across-the-board relaxation of restrictions on Chinese citizens traveling to Taiwan, including allowing those who live in China to visit, Tseng said.
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