While foreign visitors are uneasy about the slowly growing number of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) cases in Taiwan, they are elated at not having to travel to Hong Kong and China.
"I'm more than happy that all my contacts are in Taiwan," said Paul Leakey, an electronics buyer from the UK in Taipei on business.
"The manufacturers are all in China and I'm very happy I don't have to go there," he said.
Leakey was initially hesitant about visiting Taiwan.
"I was concerned about coming here, but now that I'm here it doesn't seem to be a problem," he said. "I'm avoiding crowded places, though I'm much more concerned about my partner who's signed up for a commercial seminar in Hong Kong next month. I'm thinking he shouldn't go."
According to Taiwan's Travel Agent Association (中華民國旅行公會), the number of foreign tourists dropped by 50 percent over the past two weeks alone.
The outbreak of the deadly SARS virus has cost the country US$820 million and the figure could rise according to a survey released by the Far Eastern Economic Review yesterday.
Taiwan's SARS cases rose by two yesterday to 29, while 44 suspected cases are still pending.
Another pair of visitors in Taipei yesterday -- an elderly couple from the US state of Oregon -- was anxious about visiting their son, an English teacher in Taipei County. "We called our son before we came and he told us that it was OK to come as long as we didn't fly through Hong Kong, so we booked our flights through Japan," Mildred Wyznowski said.
With their son now on Easter break, it was the only time they could see him before Christmas, they said.
"It doesn't seem to be such a big problem now we're here, but we have seen a few people wearing masks," Earl Wyznowski said. "We have masks but it's too hot and uncomfortable to wear them."
"We'll take the risk," Mildred joked. "It's not like we've got that many years left to play with."
Compared with SARS-plagued Hong Kong, Taiwan has not suffered that much, one businessman said.
"I've just been to Hong Kong and it's dead there," said Silvio Weinberg, head of a computer company in southern Brazil.
He too was hesitant about SARS before he left his home country, but many tropical diseases in Brazil can be avoided with good hygiene, he said.
And fears about SARS may be exaggerated, he said.
"You could walk out in the street tomorrow and be killed by a car. If I don't travel and do my business, my family goes hungry, so coming here is a chance I had to take," he said.
Meanwhile, one local businessman said he may have little choice but to travel to China and Hong Kong to check on business interests there.
"I have canceled all my recent trips, but it's becoming more urgent now that I go," said a middle-aged Taiwanese man surnamed Chi who has a clothing factory in Guangdong Province, where the SARS outbreak has been most severe.
"I really need to be in the factory directing the workers or they make too many mistakes," he said.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday welcomed the decision by Malaysia to lift travel restrictions on tourists from Taiwan, put in place to protect the country from the spread of SARS.
The Malaysian government stopped issuing entry visas to Taiwanese nationals on April 14.
Taiwan strongly protested the move, claiming that it had won recognition from the WHO for its effective control of the disease.
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