The Tourism Bureau yesterday said it is expanding the subsidy program for international carriers offering charter flights to Hualien and Taitung.
The program, which was launched on Jan. 9, is designed to boost international tourism to Hualien and Taitung, as the highway transport system to the east coast is often disrupted by natural disasters and train tickets are hard to come by.
The subsidy currently only covers flight carriers that offer at least two round-trip charter flights to Hualien or Taitung airport per week for a minimum of four months, the bureau said.
Although the bureau has allocated NT$50 million (US$1.62 million) for the program, only NT$2 million has been used, it said.
A number of carriers and travel agencies in Hualien and Taitung have said that the program has failed to generate more interest because of the high standards set by the bureau to qualify for the subsidy, bureau Director-General Chou Yung-hui (周永暉) said.
After discussing it with officials at the Executive Yuan’s Eastern Taiwan Joint Services Center, the bureau decided to adjust the standards set for the subsidy program, Chou said.
Instead of giving subsidies only to carriers offering charter flights on a weekly basis, starting on Jan. 9, the program would also subsidize airlines offering non-weekly charter flight services with an occupancy rate of at least 50 percent, the bureau said.
In addition, subsidies for airlines offering charter flights from Japan would be raised from NT$300,000 to NT$350,000, while those arriving from Hong Kong, Macau, the Philippines and China would be raised from NT$150,000 to NT$250,000, it said.
Subsidies for charter flights from South Korea and other Southeast Asian nations would be raised from NT$250,000 to NT$300,000.
For flights whose occupancy rates exceed 50 percent, passengers on the flights would each be given a travel subsidy of NT$600, the bureau said.
To encourage foreign travelers to spend the Lunar New Year holiday on the east coast and to visit the Taiwan Lantern Festival in Pingtung next year, charter flights arriving in Taiwan before Feb. 28 would all be subsidized even with an occupancy rate of only 30 to 50 percent.
However, the subsidy would only be 40 percent of the full amount, it said.
The budget for the program next year would be unchanged at NT$50 million and is to expire on Dec. 31.
The new standards set for the subsidy program would give tour operators more flexibility in arranging their itineraries, the bureau said, adding that it is in talks about potential collaborations with tour operators in Japan and South Korea.
As the theme for the next year is “Small Town Tourism,” the charter flight subsidy program would facilitate visits from international tourists to some of the charismatic small towns in the east coast, the bureau said.
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