A blogger has been fined NT$90,000 by the Tourism Bureau for “illegally operating a travel business,” after the bureau ruled that she had been using her online travel itineraries as advertisements to attract tourists to sign up for tours.
The blogger, who identified herself as Becky Kao, posted a complaint on her Facebook page claiming that bureau officials interrogated her over her online itineraries and then asked her to pay a NT$90,000 fine within 10 days, which she said was unreasonable.
Many bloggers upload their travel itineraries as references for other interested netizens, Kao said, adding that they also provide the estimated costs of different tours.
She said that the incident might cause some bloggers to stop posting content online because they are now concerned that the information they upload might be mistaken for travel advertisements.
Bureau documents seem to indicate that Kao posted more than just itineraries.
Between July last year and this month, the travel information that Kao posted also contained train and bus fares, accommodation costs and travel insurance fees. The posts also informed people how to transfer tour charges through ATMs and the different ways to register for tours.
Lai Ping-jung (賴炳榮), director of the bureau’s hotel, travel and training division, said that the bureau would not have considered Kao to be illegally operating a travel business if she simply shared travel information without soliciting people for tours and telling people how to pay for them.
He said that Kao was fined for contravening the Act for the Development of Tourism (觀光發展條例).
The bureau said that it has issued fines in relation to eight cases involving illegal travel business operators, with the fines ranging from NT$90,000 to NT$300,000.
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