People who plan to travel during the Lunar New Year holiday are advised to check the online Scenic Spot Alert System before they hit the road, the Tourism Bureau said, adding that it expected 11 million people would travel around the country this year.
An estimated 40,000 Chinese tourists are scheduled to arrive in Taiwan during the nine-day national holiday that begins on Saturday, the bureau said.
Bureau division chief Chen Mei-hsiu (陳美秀) said the bureau had expanded the alert system to include 20 tourist attractions because it expected more people would travel because of the relatively longer holiday.
Based on data on the alert system, traffic congestion is expected to occur at Sun Moon Lake, the National Palace Museum, Taipei 101 and Sizihwan Bay (西子灣) after Tuesday next week as thousands of tourists are likely to visit these popular spots.
Meanwhile, to avoid consumer disputes, the Tourism Bureau had asked that travel agents send all the applications for entry permits for Chinese tourists to the National Immigration Agency by today so that tourists can obtain the proper travel documents by Friday.
All travel agents handling Chinese tour groups between Saturday and Tuesday next week must hand in confirmation of hotel and bus reservations to the Tourism Bureau by Wednesday.
“Those failing to turn in the documents by the deadline will be seen as not having made hotel reservations,” the bureau said in a statement. “We will relay the information to the Cross-Strait Tourism Exchange Association [in China], which will then ask the travel agencies to cancel the tours.”
The Travel Agent Association and the Tourism Bureau will also dispatch representatives to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei Songshan Airport to provide assistance to tourists in emergency situations.
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