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Bureau plans to boost tourism

The Tourism Bureau will hold promotional activities in China and work with local government agencies to ease eligibility requirements for Chinese visitors in an effort to boost disappointing visitor numbers.

“The measures are in response to the fact that the number of Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan has failed to meet expectations after the opening in July,” said Liu Hsi-lin (劉喜臨), chief of the bureau’s International Section, said yesterday.

Liu said many Chinese tourists seem to think that visiting Taiwan is more expensive than other Southeast Asian countries, but that’s because the cost of tours to Taiwan is all-inclusive.

He said that visitors who join tours to Taiwan are not asked to pay extra fees upon arrival unlike tours to other destinations.

To promote travel in Taiwan and educate potential customers, the bureau and a group of local travel agencies will hold tourism seminars in the middle of next month in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Guangzhou and Xiamen — the five cities covered by direct weekend charter flights between Taiwan and China.

In November, 33 Chinese travel agencies and media representatives will be invited to take part in the “Taipei Cross-strait Travel Exhibition, “ Liu said.

The visitors will also take a five to seven-day trip around Taiwan to experience the country’s beauty and culture first-hand.

The bureau will also work with local government agencies to ease restrictions on Chinese tourists.

One possibility mentioned was eliminating the requirement that applicants provide an employment certificate, as retirees form an important segment of the tourism market.

In a sign of easing ties between Taipei and Beijing, Taiwan and China reached agreements on June 13 to operate direct cross-strait charter fights on weekends and to expand the number of Chinese tourists allowed to visit Taiwan to 3,000 per day.

However, statistics released by the bureau show that the expected influx of Chinese tourists since the tourism pact took effect on July 18 had not materialized, with arrival numbers barely one-tenth of the projected 3,000 visitors per day.

Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) said on Thursday he hoped the number of direct charter flights and flight routes across the Taiwan Strait would increase after talks between Taiwan and China next month, which he said would help boost Chinese tourist numbers.
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