The Tourism Bureau yesterday said that it will implement stricter standards to evaluate Chinese tour groups when they apply for entry permits as a way to address the problems created by cheap tours, adding that the bureau would consider reducing shopping stops and switching quotas to non-shopping tour groups if travel quality were to deteriorate further.
The bureau recently amended two rules governing the management of Chinese tour groups offering average-quality tours and high-quality tours.
The former took effect on Friday last week, while the latter was announced on Wednesday and is scheduled to take effect on Oct. 1.
Under the new rules, groups offering high-quality tours are to be given priority in obtaining entry permits.
Lai Ping-jung (賴炳榮), director of the bureau’s hotel, travel and training division, said that the amendment to the rules regulating groups providing high-quality tours would greatly restrict the number of shopping stops.
For example, a seven-night tour can have no more than six shopping stops and travel agents can offer only one stop involving sales of jewelry or other luxury goods during the trip.
Lai also said that Chinese tourists joining high-quality tour groups must arrive through direct cross-strait flights or via Kinmen, Matsu and Penghu. They cannot arrive from Hong Kong, Macau or other third places, or even transfer flights from there, he said.
“We have found that the tourists arriving through Hong Kong, Macau or other places tend to be from all over China and join the tours organized by travel agencies in Hong Kong or Macau,” he said.
“The relatively cheaper flights between Taipei and Hong Kong in comparison with the direct cross-strait flights have left room for low-priced groups to exist,” he said.
The rules have been changed to prevent travel agencies from offering low-price tours and then seeking to make up for their losses through commissions earned from shopping stops.
The low-price tours lower the quality of travel offerings and disrupt the market, the bureau said.
The average tour cost per person will be raised by between US$15 and US$20 after the new rules are implemented, it said.
Bureau statistics show that Chinese arriving from Hong Kong, Macau or other places accounted for between 19 percent and 35 percent of Chinese tourists in Taiwan.
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