Even before the election results on Saturday last week, there were rumors that China might reduce the number of tourists allowed to visit Taiwan if Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was elected. While this might worry some people, it could be a good opportunity to readjust the nation’s tourism promotion policy.
After more than half a century of hostility, the governments of Taiwan and China finally agreed to lift a ban on Chinese tourism to Taiwan in June 2008. The number of Chinese visitors skyrocketed and last year Chinese tourists accounted for more than 40 percent of all foreign visitors.
With millions of Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan annually, the tourism industry should be able to reap the benefits, yet the “one-dragon” (一條龍) service — meaning that Chinese companies organize the transportation, shopping, meals, accommodation and other services catering to Chinese tour groups — excludes non-Chinese businesses from the market.
Taiwanese tour guides and travel agencies have repeatedly said that due to the low prices that Chinese tourists pay to join tour groups to Taiwan, they make very little profit, as some Chinese travel agencies pay Taiwanese tour companies only US$40 or less per person per day to provide activities and accommodation, despite Tourism Bureau regulations that set the minimum per person per day budget at US$80.
Taiwanese tour guides have tried to make more money by charging souvenir shops commissions and as a result, souvenir items in some stores might be sold at higher prices to Chinese tourists.
A tea grower told the Taipei Times in an interview that a travel agency asked if the store would be willing to receive Chinese tour groups under the condition that the store pay 70 percent of profits made in sales to the Chinese tourists in commission to the agency.
The overwhelming number of Chinese tourists also affects the quality of vacations in Taiwan for both locals and travelers from other nations.
People complain that popular tourist destinations are overcrowded with Chinese tourists: At Alishan (阿里山), it is nearly impossible to get tickets for the famous mountain railroad, as tickets for entire trains are often booked by Chinese travel agencies. At Sun Moon Lake (日月潭) in Nantou County, people are irritated by Chinese tourists cutting in line to take pictures at scenic spots. At the National Palace Museum in Taipei, people often complain that Chinese tourists are speaking too loudly, disrupting their appreciation of the collections. Museum staff recommend that domestic visitors come from 6pm to 9pm on Friday and Saturday nights, as Taiwanese get free entry into the museum, and few Chinese tourists visit at that time.
The decline in quality of travel has also led to a decline in the numbers of tourists from other nations.
Many Chinese tourists say Taiwan is a place of low quality, and there is a popular saying in China that “if you have been to Taiwan, you will regret it for the rest of your life.”
Most importantly, the Chinese government can arbitrarily control the number of Chinese nationals to Taiwan. An over-reliance on Chinese tourists means the survival of Taiwan’s tourism industry is in Beijing’s hands.
If Beijing cut down on the number of Chinese tourists allowed to visit Taiwan, the tourism industry might suffer for a short while, yet, in the long run, it is a good opportunity for Taiwan to readjust its tourism policy for healthier development.
In the first year of his second term, US President Donald Trump continued to shake the foundations of the liberal international order to realize his “America first” policy. However, amid an atmosphere of uncertainty and unpredictability, the Trump administration brought some clarity to its policy toward Taiwan. As expected, bilateral trade emerged as a major priority for the new Trump administration. To secure a favorable trade deal with Taiwan, it adopted a two-pronged strategy: First, Trump accused Taiwan of “stealing” chip business from the US, indicating that if Taipei did not address Washington’s concerns in this strategic sector, it could revisit its Taiwan
The stocks of rare earth companies soared on Monday following news that the Trump administration had taken a 10 percent stake in Oklahoma mining and magnet company USA Rare Earth Inc. Such is the visible benefit enjoyed by the growing number of firms that count Uncle Sam as a shareholder. Yet recent events surrounding perhaps what is the most well-known state-picked champion, Intel Corp, exposed a major unseen cost of the federal government’s unprecedented intervention in private business: the distortion of capital markets that have underpinned US growth and innovation since its founding. Prior to Intel’s Jan. 22 call with analysts
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) challenges and ignores the international rules-based order by violating Taiwanese airspace using a high-flying drone: This incident is a multi-layered challenge, including a lawfare challenge against the First Island Chain, the US, and the world. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) defines lawfare as “controlling the enemy through the law or using the law to constrain the enemy.” Chen Yu-cheng (陳育正), an associate professor at the Graduate Institute of China Military Affairs Studies, at Taiwan’s Fu Hsing Kang College (National Defense University), argues the PLA uses lawfare to create a precedent and a new de facto legal
International debate on Taiwan is obsessed with “invasion countdowns,” framing the cross-strait crisis as a matter of military timetables and political opportunity. However, the seismic political tremors surrounding Central Military Commission (CMC) vice chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) suggested that Washington and Taipei are watching the wrong clock. Beijing is constrained not by a lack of capability, but by an acute fear of regime-threatening military failure. The reported sidelining of Zhang — a combat veteran in a largely unbloodied force and long-time loyalist of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — followed a year of purges within the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA)
RSS