The Travel Quality Assurance Association yesterday published a report that included reference prices for overseas tour packages from April to June, saying that customers can preorder the discounted products while they are still on the market.
Due to COVID-19, tourism has declined, with many scheduled tours getting canceled, the association said.
However, the tourism sector is gearing up for a sales rebound, such as the one after the 2002-2003 SARS epidemic, and readying itself for the first peak travel season after COVID-19 is contained and diminishes, it said.
Photo: Cheng Wei-chi, Taipei Times
The second quarter is typically the peak season for groups traveling to Japan and with a weaker yen, prices for tours during that time are about NT$1,000 to NT$2,000 less than last year, association member Tsai Ching-hui (蔡錦惠) said.
The price of a five-day tour to Kyushu costs between NT$18,800 and NT$61,800; a five-day tour to Keihanshin — a metropolitan region encompassing the cities of Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe — between NT$26,800 and NT$57,800; and a four-day tour to Tokyo between NT$28,800 and NT$45,800, she said.
The prices of tours to South Korea are NT$500 to NT$1,000 cheaper than last year, she said, adding that a five-day tour to Seoul costs between NT$11,800 and NT$26,800, while a five-day tour to Busan or Jeju Island costs between NT$11,800 and NT$22,800.
A five-day tour to the Philippine islands of Boracay, Palawan or Cebu costs between NT$16,900 and NT$31,800, association member Hsiang Chien-lun (向健倫) said.
The prices of tours to Thailand in the second quarter are generally stable, with a five-day tour to Bangkok or Pattaya costing between NT$16,000 and NT$24,000, and a five-day tour to Chiang Mai between NT$19,000 and NT$31,000, he added.
The peak season for tours to the US and Canada starts in April, including popular destinations such as Yellowstone National Park and the Canadian icefields, association member Tsai Chia-hsuan (蔡佳璇) said.
The prices of US tours are NT$1,000 cheaper than last year, whereas tours to Canada are NT$5,000 to NT$10,000 more expensive, Tsai said.
US regulations on COVID-19 state that travelers who have visited China, Hong Kong or Macau must have papers showing that they were placed under home quarantine, but Taiwanese can obtain a certificate from the National Immigration Agency so that they can enter the US, Tsai said.
Many Taiwanese visit Europe in April, but the outbreak has sparked some negative reactions among Europeans toward Asians, prompting several travel agencies to offer special promotions, association member Hsiao Shih-hua (蕭世華) said.
Australia and New Zealand have been less affected by COVID-19 and Australia’s bushfires have been contained, association member Huang Hsien-tsai (黃賢在) said, adding that prices of tours to Australia are about NT$1,000 cheaper than last year, while tours to New Zealand are NT$2,000 cheaper.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the