More than 100 travel and bus service providers blocked the entrance to the Tourism Bureau yesterday morning to protest the government's decision to give the Travel Agents Association (TAA) exclusive rights to handle Chinese tourist visa applications.
"The government has authorized a non-governmental group to receive the applications of Chinese tourists, to check their identities and to control the quota assigned to each travel agent," Tourism Development Association (TDA) chairman James Chang (
"How can you expect them to be fair if they are both the player and the referee?" he said.
PHOTO: SAM YEH, AFP
"The authority should be returned to the government -- the National Immigration Agency grants the approval to the Chinese tourists, whereas the Straits Exchange Foundation reviews applicants' status," he said.
Chang said the government should also not set minimum daily expenditure for Chinese tourists. He said travel agencies that provide bad service would soon lose customers.
Deputy Director-General of the Tourism Bureau Kuosu Tsan-yang (
Kuosu said that, compared with other countries, Taiwan has had only a few Chinese tourists flee their tour groups to try to stay in Taiwan illegally.
This could be attributed to a thorough vetting of Chinese visitors, he said.
The minimum daily expense requirement was also set to protect the interests of Chinese tourists, he said.
Kuosu said his bureau would need to review the guidelines governing tourist quota management with other organizations.
TAA secretary-general Hsu Kao-ching (許高慶) said that the association has members representing local travel associations from Taipei, Kaohsiung and Kinmen and other counties.
The interests of 2,713 travel agencies are at stake, he said.
Hsu emphasized that the National Immigration Agency is in charge of managing quotas assigned to different travel agencies, not his association.
The agency has reserved a 5 percent to 10 percent additional quota to enable it to regulate the number of Chinese tourists in a more flexible manner.
Travel agencies with better records will automatically be placed on the priority list for the additional quota, Hsu said.
He said that the association was entrusted by the government with the task of reviewing the visa applications of Chinese tourists. The association will contact its sources in China to verify each applicant's personal information.
This review process has significantly reduced the number of China tourists who flee their tour groups to stay in the country, he said.
Hsu said that association personnel handling the applications must sign affidavits promising to keep the confidentiality of their clients' information and to avoid conflicts of interest.
After the protesters ended their demonstration outside the Tourism Bureau they went to the Legislative Yuan, where they staged another protest outside the main entrance to the building.
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