The nation’s travel agents are concerned that a nationwide curfew in Thailand would damage the tour market in the Southeast Asian country that had just rebounded last month.
Thailand’s military declared a coup and a nationwide curfew on Thursday, causing many nations to advise their citizens to reconsider any travel to the nation. The curfew runs from 10pm until 5am the following day. Shopping malls, night markets and public transport systems are to be closed during the curfew hours.
As of yesterday, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not changed its travel alert for Thailand, which remains “yellow.” The signal means that travelers should heed their safety and re-evaluate the necessity of any travel.
Roget Hsu (許高慶), secretary-general of Taiwan’s Travel Agent Association, said the number of local tourists had diminished since the conflicts between pro and anti- Thai government factions turned violent.
The curfew, Hsu said, would greatly affect tourists scheduled to travel during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, as well as students heading for their graduation trips. He added that trips to Thailand had just shown signs of slight recovery, but that the curfew would drive the market back to recession.
Gloria General Travel Service vice general manager Sui Kuei-chen (隋桂珍) said the situation in Thailand would definitely affect tour groups leaving in July, adding that one company treating its employees to an incentive tour to Thailand had decided to postpone its trip.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand’s office in Taipei advised travelers to carry personal identification with them in case of inspections by law enforcement officers.
In contrast, the tour market between Taiwan and Japan has shown no signs of recession. The number of tourists traveling between these two nations topped 3.76 million last year, with about 2.34 million Taiwanese tourists traveling to Japan and about 1.42 million Japanese tourists visiting Taiwan. The number is estimated to top 4 million this year.
Tourism Bureau Deputy Director-General Wayne Liu (劉喜臨) said Japan’s outbound tourism market had declined by about 5 percent last year due to the devaluation of the yen.
However, he said that while the number of Japanese tourists traveling to Taiwan had topped 1.42 million last year, it did not show any increase. He estimated that Japanese travel to Taiwan could grow by 25 percent this year.
To encourage more Japanese tourists to visit, Liu said the bureau has planned to expand its marketing campaign to include some of the second-tier cities in Japan, including Iwate and Kanazawa.
It would also consider reaching out to other Japanese cities or prefectures from which residents rarely travel and offer to subsidize them in their applications for Taiwanese visas.
Meanwhile, the counties in Taiwan are also encouraged to introduce city tour cards, offering various discounts to Japanese tourists during visits, he added.
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