Former minister of transportation and communications Chen Chien-yu (陳建宇) yesterday called the government’s handling of a controversy surrounding China’s activation of northbound flight route M503 and three extension routes “suicidal,” saying that the government’s actions so far would only hurt Taiwanese in China.
Chen made the comments before addressing a tourism forum in Taipei hosted by the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) National Policy Foundation think tank and several tourism associations.
Some technical issues should not be resolved in a political manner, he said.
Photo courtesy of National Policy Foundation
“Similar cases might have occurred in other nations, which we could use as a reference,” Chen said. “We are confronting a country much bigger than us. Rather than handling the situation with might, we should handle it with smart moves.”
“To me personally, it has been shocking to see how the situation has been handled. The government only looked at the front and ignored the back. What the government has done is suicidal and absolutely disappointing,” he said. “It will only hurt Taiwanese living in China.”
Taiwan was able to reach an agreement with China in 2015 about conditions that must be met to activate the northbound M503 route and three extension routes, KMT Chairman Wu Duen-yih (吳敦義) said, asking why the Democratic Progressive Party administration did not follow suit.
The failure to reach a bilateral agreement with China on the four routes has caused two Chinese airlines to cancel requests for 176 additional flights, which would inconvenience Taiwanese working and studying in China when they try to return home for the Lunar New Year holiday, he said.
“Why would this administration rather punish its own people by causing them to spend more time and money to get home instead of communicating with China to minimize the effects of the aviation routes,” Wu said.
He described the “status quo” of cross-strait relations as “one of the two parties has read a text message and chosen not to respond,” which he said needs to change.
While it is necessary to cultivate tourism from Southeast Asia, the government should not give up on Chinese tourists, who have greater purchasing power and normally spend more time traveling around Taiwan than Southeast Asian tourists, Wu said.
Southeast Asian tourists spend an average of four days in Taiwan, while Chinese tourists usually spend eight days, he said.
Travel Agent Association chairman Hsiao Bo-jen (蕭博仁) said the Chinese tourism market had stopped developing from April last year.
The nation should not let go of the Chinese tourist market, Hsiao said, adding that politics should play no role in the development of tourism.
There is still a way to revive cross-strait tourism, he said.
However, that way is getting narrower following the controversy over the M503 route, he added.
“If Taiwan and China can find their ways back to the negotiating table and communicate, everyone benefits and the nation’s tourism industry would still have room to grow,” Hsiao said.
As cross-strait tourism can be expected to be affected by politics over the next two years, it is necessary to find business in Southeast Asia, in line with the government’s New Southbound Policy, he said.
However, tourists from the countries targeted by the New Southbound Policy spend an average of three-and-half days in Taiwan, and the attractions they visit are mostly in the north, Hsiao said.
Travel operators in central and southern Taiwan would have to change the way they operate, he said.
“We have to change our thinking when offering tours to tourists from the countries targeted by the New Southbound Policy,” Hsiao said.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai