Tour operators urged the government yesterday to speed up its plans to allow more Chinese tourists to visit, but an official in charge of mainland affairs gave an unwelcome reply: "some things take time."
Only 37 mainland Chinese tourists have come to Taiwan in the past three months, making the government's new opening policy "totally meaningless," tour operators complained.
At a public hearing held in the Legislative Yuan, the operators and representatives from tourism industry associations demanded that the government immediately skip to phase three of its tourism opening plan and allow all Chinese sightseers to visit.
However, Mainland Affairs Council Vice Chairman Chen Ming-tung (陳明通) said that although the government is as anxious as the operators to see more mainland tourists, many of the details involve negotiations with Beijing and must be handled in a step-by-step manner.
Chen said that opening the nation to mainland tourists is the government's established policy, that the first phase has already been carried out and that the second phase will follow soon, once necessary visa-issuing facilities are established in Hong Kong.
The government currently only allows mainland citizens who have official resident status in a third country or who are studying overseas to visit Taiwan, and then only as part of a tour group.
Once the second phase is implemented, Hong Kong and Macau residents with Chinese passports will be allowed to visit Taiwan for sightseeing.
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