Chinese tour operators who organize charter flights to Taiwan that bypass the country’s two main northern airports are now eligible for subsidies from the Tourism Bureau, after the bureau recently revised a tourism incentive program.
Under the modified regulations, Chinese travel agents will receive NT$160,000 per charter as long as the flights do not use Taipei City’s Songshan Airport or Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and carry at least 100 foreign passengers who stay a minimum of two days in Taiwan.
Tourism Bureau officials said that if the charters either take off or land at one of the two northern airports, or carry between 50 and 100 passengers, the charter operators will be eligible for partial subsidies.
The incentive is designed to expose foreign tourists to parts of the country outside of the popular northern gateways, including its outlying islands, bureau officials said.
The vast majority of the current 108 direct charter flights between Taiwan and China per week use one of the two northern airports, even though eight airports have been authorized to handle the direct charters. Of the 108 direct charters per week, only four serve Kaohsiung and only two serve Taichung.
The Tourism Bureau launched the incentive program in May 2005 to encourage travel agents, primarily in Hong Kong, Macau, Japan and South Korea, to organize large group tours in Taiwan.
With an increase in the number of Chinese tourists since the beginning of the year, the Tourism Bureau recently included China in the incentive program to channel more Chinese visitors to other parts of Taiwan. Taiwan accepts a maximum of 3,000 Chinese tourist arrivals per day.
Earlier last month, the Executive Yuan said it was considering raising the quota on Chinese tourists allowed to travel to Taiwan.
In addition, Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) proposed earlier this month to allow Chinese tourists to engage in more independent travel to Taiwan. Chinese tourists, while still being required to travel with guides, would be allowed to travel in smaller groups of only two to three people.
Taiwan and China have agreed to lower the minimum number of people per group from 10 to five, but most of the visiting groups from China are still big, with more than 30 people each, the Tourism Bureau said.
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