Taiwan Visitors Association Chairman S.L. Chang (張學勞) may be appointed as top negotiator representing Taiwan at talks on issues pertaining to Chinese citizens traveling to Taiwan for sightseeing and leisure trips, tourism industry sources said yesterday.
The sources said that the Taiwan Visitors Association and the China Travel Association may be the two agencies from across the Taiwan Strait to be appointed by governments from the two sides for talks on matters regarding Chinese tourists' visits to Taiwan.
Chang, formerly director-general of the Tourism Bureau under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, has just returned from a visit to Beijing where he met with officials from China's National Tourism Administration.
Declining to confirm whether he will head the Taiwanese delegation in talks with China, Chang said that details regarding Chinese sightseeing in Taiwan are "very complicated" and elaborate talks must take place beforehand.
Travel agency operators from both sides are now rolling up their sleeves in preparation for the opportunities presented by China's recent decision to allow Chinese citizens to travel to Taiwan for tourism.
Beijing announced its go-ahead on May 20 to allow Chinese citizens to go sightseeing in Taiwan as a "goodwill gesture."
In response to Beijing's relaxed policy, Taiwan is planning to allow as many as 1,000 Chinese tourists to enter Taiwan per day for stays of up to 10 days.
According to a local travel agent, if the opening policy is implemented, a quota control system of 1,000 Chinese tourists per day would be far less than demand, making cut-throat competition among travel agencies inevitable.
To date, the agent said, the number of Chinese citizens making leisure trips to Taiwan has only averaged about 30,000 per year due to several factors, including tight controls imposed by the governments on both sides of the Strait.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai