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Bureau says focus should shift to inbound tourism

“Amid the economic downturn, you should reconsider your niche in the market.”

— Janice Lai, Tourism Bureau director-general

Tourism Bureau Director-General Janice Lai (賴瑟珍) suggested yesterday that the nation’s travel agencies consider switching the focus of their businesses to the inbound tourism market as overseas travel has declined drastically this year.

“Amid the economic downturn, you should reconsider your niche in the market,” Lai said while addressing representatives from travel agencies nationwide. “The inbound market still has the potential to grow.”

Lai also said that the bureau naturally hoped that restrictions on domestic tourism could be loosened, not just those on Chinese tourists.

She emphasized that last week’s cross-strait agreements were reached after seven rounds of negotiations, and that the bureau will not be content with the status quo — in which only residents from 13 Chinese provinces are allowed to visit Taiwan, and only 33 travel agencies can handle tours to Taiwan.

Lai said the nation’s outbound tourist number dropped about 10 percent last month, the largest loss in a single month since the SARS outbreak in 2003.

This year, inbound tourists maintained 5 percent growth amid the global economic downturn.

Travel Agent Association chairman Yao Ta-kuan (姚大光) added that this year had been a bittersweet year for many travel agents. Natural disasters happened one after another, including a snowstorm in China, the Sichuan earthquake and the political unrest in Thailand. The nation’s travel agents were shaken by a number of other incidents, such as the bankruptcy of domestic and overseas airlines and rising oil prices.

The government also decided to allow more Chinese tourists to come in July, which brought new business opportunities, he said.

The fact that the bureau agreed to provide loans and subsidies to travel agencies would help them through the lean times, he said.
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