The European Chamber of Commerce in Taipei (ECCT) said yesterday that it will urge the government to allow Chinese airlines to set up representative offices in Taiwan to do ticketing. The move is part of the chamber's appeal for the normalization of cross-strait business relations.
ECCT officials will meet with government authorities today.
"We will bring up the issue [in our meeting with the government authorities]," said Jan de Vries, co-chair of the ECCT's Travel and Tourism Committee, in a telephone interview yesterday.
De Vries is also general manager of British Asia Airways Taiwan.
Just like elsewhere in the world, airlines can set up representative offices to serve travelers in countries where they do not really have operations in practice, de Vries said.
The establishment of offices in Taiwan by China's airlines is technically possible and workable for commercial purposes and for consumers' convenience, he said.
Trips between Taiwan and China now generally require a combination of tickets sold only in Taiwan or greater China at unpublished special prices, with a transfer most commonly in Hong Kong or Macau. This leads to more trouble and cost, the chamber said.
Some agents purchase tickets from China's carriers to resell locally, often without proper reservations or support, which raises the cost and complexity of organizing a tour to greater China, including a stopover in Taiwan by European and local operators, it said.
RSS