Travel agencies, hoteliers and anyone who bought into President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) rosy picture of an enormous economic boost following the lifting of restrictions on Chinese tourists are evidently in for a shock.
Taiwan opened the door to Chinese tourists on July 4 with the launch of cross-strait charter flights. At the time, Ma claimed that spending in Taiwan spurred by these tourists would amount to NT$60 billion (US$1.95 billion) a year, or some NT$164 million per day.
As of Tuesday, however, one month after the policy was implemented, statistics show that only 5,664 Chinese tourists have visited in the past month, with the actual money generated by these tourists estimated at only NT$9,862 per person per day.
Do the math and you will find that number translates to an average of 183 Chinese tourists per day, falling far short of Ma’s promise of 3,000 tourists per day.
Meanwhile, the Civil Aeronautics Administration’s (CAA) data shows some 52,000 passengers traveled on cross-strait charter flights last month, with an average passenger occupancy rate of 87 percent. But most passengers taking the flights are Taiwanese, a far cry from the expectations of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government that the flights would bring copious business opportunities from tourism.
When China started to loosen restrictions on overseas tourism in 2000, numerous countries in Europe opened their arms to Chinese tourists and eyed all the potential business benefits they would bring.
Some may recall the length to which the French government went to attract Chinese tourists, from staging a lavish Lunar New Year celebration on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, to designating 2003 the “Year of China in France,” to staffing the nation’s shops with Mandarin-speaking sales assistants. The government went as far as advising French people not to mention Tibet or Taiwan to Chinese tourists.
As it turned out, the influx of Chinese tour groups did bring about rich business opportunities in the initial stages, but it was not long before the optimism began to fade as a result of China’s centralized coordination procedures for overseas trips through contracted travel agents, which subsequently cut out other businesses from grabbing a share of the market.
Earlier this week, Taiwan’s Tourism Bureau estimated the arrival of 1,500 Chinese tourists this week and predicted that the numbers would be consistent for the rest of this month. But a number of firms in the tourism industry have complained, saying their business has not improved as the government had promised.
In view of all this, Ma and his administration should offer an apology for their broken promises.
Ma last week claimed the Olympic Games was the reason the numbers of Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan were so low. If this is really the case, why did Ma promise during his campaign earlier this year that 3,000 Chinese tourists per day would visit?
The juxtaposition of the Olympics with unkept policy commitments further hurts the credibility of a government that is struggling to speak on any matter without coming across as peddlers of humbug.
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