Representatives of the tourism industry in Kaohsiung and Pingtung are scheduled to meet with a top tourism official from China today as part of efforts to attract more Chinese visitors to southern Taiwan.
Lin Fu-nan (林富男), head of the Kao Kao Ping Tourism Alliance, a union of tourism-related industries in the Kaohsiung and Pingtung areas, said the alliance will discuss with Shao Qiwei (邵琪偉), director of China’s National Tourism Administration and head of the Cross-Strait Tourism Association, ways of bringing more Chinese tourists to the area.
Lin said that Kaohsiung City tourism has suffered greatly because of a sharp decrease in the number of Chinese tourist arrivals since a visit last year by the Dalai Lama, who is viewed by China as a separatist.
The Kaohsiung City Government invited the Tibetan spiritual leader to visit last year to pray for victims of Typhoon Morakot after the storm in August caused massive destruction in the south of the country.
Then in September last year, the city government screened a documentary about exiled Uighur political activist Rebiya Kadeer.
Kadeer is also seen by China as a separatist.
Lin said that thanks to the efforts of tourism operators who sought to establish communications with the Chinese authorities, tourist arrivals from China have returned to “normal levels.”
He expressed the hope that “no other government agencies or officials would take similar actions or make remarks” that would be detrimental to tourism or other industries.
“As 45 percent of visitors to Kaohsiung City are Chinese tourists, many tourism operators in the area see Chinese visitor arrivals as a shot in arm for the sector,” Lin said.
The operators have planned new tour packages and are hoping that the meeting with Shao will yield positive results, he added.
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