Taipei, Taoyuan and Hsinchu City are to be included in the Tourism Bureau’s winter domestic travel subsidy program next month in compliance with a resolution passed at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday, the bureau said, adding that the budget for the program would be increased from NT$980 million (US$31.8 million) to NT$1.3 billion.
The bureau is to subsidize tour groups and independent travelers, regardless of where they visit, it said.
It previously excluded independent travelers to the three cities from receiving the subsidy on the grounds that average hotel occupancy rates in the three cities in the past three years were above 50 percent.
Local government officials and hoteliers criticized the policy as it was.
Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) yesterday vowed to press the Executive Yuan to replace bureau Director-General Chou Yung-hui (周永暉) if he refused to change the policy.
Many tourists cancel their hotel reservations in Taipei and visit cities so they would be eligible for the subsidies, Taipei Department of Information and Tourism Commissioner Chen Su-yu (陳思宇) said, adding that the practice punished hoteliers in Taipei.
It was unreasonable for the bureau to exclude the three cities because of their hotel occupancy rates, said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Cheng Pao-ching (鄭寶清), who represents Taoyuan.
The program punishes quality hoteliers in the cities for diligently managing their businesses, Cheng said.
Hotel occupancy rates in Taoyuan actually declined from 55.78 percent in 2014 and 51 percent in 2015 to 48.21 percent last year, Cheng Pao-ching said, adding that it fell to 48.06 percent in June.
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport collects NT$10 billion in airport service fees per year, NT$5 billion of which goes into the Tourism Development Fund, but Taoyuan was unfairly excluded from the program, he said.
The committee passed a resolution that he proposed to immediately include the three cities in the program.
Hoteliers and tourists would welcome the subsidies, but this should not be the bureau’s long-term strategy, DPP Legislator Lee Kun-tse (李昆澤) said.
“The subsidy would only help move tourists from one region to another, but would not increase the number of domestic travelers,” Lee said.
The bureau should focus on developing regional tourism brands and package tours if it is to administer the program more effectively, he said.
To encourage domestic tourists to spend more, the government should consider allowing people to deduct domestic travel expenses from their income tax, Lee said, adding that the amount of the deductible could be NT$5,000 to NT$6,000.
The subsidy program is designed to help tour operators boost their business in off-peak times, Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Chi Wen-jong (祁文中) said, adding that officials from the bureau and the Ministry of Transportation and Communication have met on several occasions to consider the program’s details.
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
A total lunar eclipse, an astronomical event often referred to as a “blood moon,” would be visible to sky watchers in Taiwan starting just before midnight on Sunday night, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The phenomenon is also called “blood moon” due to the reddish-orange hue it takes on as the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, completely blocking direct sunlight from reaching the lunar surface. The only light is refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, and its red wavelengths are bent toward the moon, illuminating it in a dramatic crimson light. Describing the event as the most important astronomical phenomenon
BETTER SERVICE QUALITY: From Nov. 10, tickets with reserved seats would only be valid for the date, train and route specified on the ticket, THSRC said Starting on Nov. 10, high-speed rail passengers with reserved seats would be required to exchange their tickets to board an earlier train. Passengers with reserved seats on a specific train are currently allowed to board earlier trains on the same day and sit in non-reserved cars, but as this is happening increasingly often, and affecting quality of travel and ticket sales, Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) announced that it would be canceling the policy on Nov. 10. It is one of several new measures launched by THSRC chairman Shih Che (史哲) to improve the quality of service, it said. The company also said
RSS