Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) yesterday said that his ministry would not ignore the continual decline in the number of Chinese tourists to the nation, but warned that the travel industry must be prepared to handle an uncertain cross-strait relationship following the change in government.
“We will not disregard the pressure brought by the continued decrease in the number of Chinese tourists in this uncertain political environment, but we are obliged to inform tour operators of the situation,” Hochen said. “The government will try to diversify the source of tourists, make Taiwanese tourism information available to international visitors and help tour bus companies when they seek branding of their businesses.”
“However, the tourism industry should not expect business to be as good as in the past, nor ask for government subsidies if business declines,” he said. “This is the consensus we should have.”
The Chinese-language China Times said it tracked the number of entry permit applications from China received by the National Immigration Agency and said that the decline would be more apparent in the second half of next month.
Speaking on his participation in the APEC Tourism Ministerial Meeting in Peru this weekend, Hochen said the ministry has arranged for bilateral meetings with delegates from Malaysia and Thailand, and is working on setting up similar meetings with Indonesia and the Philippines.
A meeting with China is possible, with both sides yet to set a time, he said.
Another goal to achieve at the APEC meeting is to inform neighboring countries that Taiwan has relaxed many tourism-related regulations, he said.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications would also seek assistance from schools that offer tourism studies to help local governments improve services for visitors from non-English speaking nations, he said.
Asked about his controversial decision not to cancel freeway tolls during the Dragon Boat Festival next month, Hochen said the decision was made to ease traffic congestion during the holiday.
Critics have said the move would increase daytime traffic during the four-day holiday that starts on Thursday next week.
Hochen said that letting people drive on freeways toll-free at nighttime during holidays was implemented when there were toll booths, at which drivers had to stop, slowing traffic.
The toll-free hours were used to encourage nighttime use of the freeways, easing daytime congestion, he said.
Drivers are now charged via the electronic toll collection (ETC) system and all the toll booths have been removed, but the government continued using the toll-free hours as a method to ease freeway traffic on long weekends or major holidays, he said.
Citing government statistics, he said that the risk of traffic accidents while driving at night during holidays is 1.4 times higher than driving at night during weekends.
“The [National Freeway Bureau] has backed [toll-free periods] for years, believing that they cause daytime freeway traffic to move to nighttime traffic, which is really an uncertain benefit,” he said. “However, now it has been proven that there is an is an increase in traffic accidents during those toll-free [nighttime] hours.”
“Should the government continue to promote toll-free hours in pursuit of an unsure benefit?” he asked. “It is practically encouraging people to drive at night and exposing drivers to danger.”
Even though the ETC system has helped gather a massive amount of traffic data, Hochen said that it has yet to be analyzed in detail, particularly with respect to how toll-free hours affect freeway traffic on national holidays.
He added that the ministry should use traffic data to gradually adjust the pricing mechanism for tolls in a bid to manage congestion.
“We believe that our appeal to road safety is correct and we are headed in the right direction by managing traffic through scientific studies and progressive action,” he said.
“We are sure that the result of our strategic decision would help improve our plans to get people home on national holidays,” he said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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