The Executive Yuan has approved a plan to extend NT$30 billion (US$952 million) in loans to the tourism sector, which has felt the pinch after a fall in the number of Chinese visitors this year.
The Cabinet said that the loans are aimed at helping domestic tourism businesses upgrade their hardware and software in a bid to improve the quality of the industry and eventually attract more visitors to the nation.
Since the Democratic Progressive Party government took office on May 20, there has been a 30 percent year-on-year decline in the number of Chinese tourists taking part in group tours amid cooling cross-strait ties.
Photo: Liu Pin-chuan, Taipei Times
The number of Chinese visitors was down 15.03 percent year-on-year in July, after falling about 12 percent in May and June.
According to the Hotel Association of the Republic of China (Taiwan), the hotel occupancy rate has dropped by 50 percent, with those in central, southern and eastern Taiwan the hardest-hit.
In addition, the National Joint Association of Buses for Tourists of the Republic of China (Taiwan) said that about 80 percent of a total of 16,000 tourist buses in the nation are idle.
The plunge has caused an outcry from the tourism industry, which has urged the government to provide financial assistance to help companies survive the steep decline.
Members of the tourism industry are planning to stage a demonstration on Monday.
The loans are to be made available to businesses under set circumstances defined by the National Development Council, Executive Yuan spokesman Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said, adding that the loans are not a form of financial relief.
According to the council’s Guiding Principles on Preferential Loans to Aid the Upgrades of the Tourism Industry (獎勵觀光產業升級優惠貸款要點), companies applying for the loans must use the funding to upgrade their hardware and software to offer better quality tourism.
The Executive Yuan said it would also encourage more Taiwanese to tour the nation and make up for the shortfall in Chinese visitors, while the government would continue in its efforts to diversify the sources of foreign visitors.
The Executive Yuan said that it would help the tourism industry come up with innovative tour packages providing an insightful look at the nation, including its unique cultures, to lure more foreign tourists.
Additional reporting by Lee Hsin-fang
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
COMPLIANCE: The SEF has helped more than 3,900 Chinese verify documents, indicating that most of those affected are willing to cooperate, the MAC said More than 3,100 spouses from China have submitted proof of renunciation of their Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The National Immigration Agency has since April issued notices to spouses to submit proof that they had renounced their Chinese household registration on or before June 30 or their Taiwanese household registration would be revoked. People having difficulties obtaining such a document can request an extension of the deadline or submit a written affidavit in lieu of it. The council said it would hold a briefing at 2:30pm on Friday at the immigration agency’s Taichung office in cooperation with the
The government-funded human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination is to be expanded to boys at junior-high school starting in September, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. The Taiwan Society of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, the Taiwan Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Taiwan Immunization Vision and Strategy, the Infectious Diseases Society of Taiwan, the Taiwan Head and Neck Society, the Formosa Cancer Foundation and the National Alliance of Presidents of Parents Associations held a joint news conference in Taipei yesterday to raise public awareness about the risks of HPV infection, regardless of gender. Invited to give an address, HPA Director-General Wu Chao-chun
RSS