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
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS