The Green Party Taiwan yesterday announced its position on tourism ahead of January’s legislative elections, saying the government should cap the number of Chinese tourists allowed to visit and push policies that help local businesses prosper from increased tourism.
The party called on the government to conduct environmental impact assessments of tourism-related policies.
Also, a cap on the number of tourists should be set after factoring in the environmental carrying capacity of an area, as existing urban planning laws only take the demographics of residents into account and neglect large numbers of foreign tourists, who might also impact an area, it said.
This can be achieved by formulating laws in the spirit of national land planning, whereby the optimal population and land use for an area can be determined to minimize the impact created by tourists, the party said.
Citing Tourism Bureau statistics, Green Party Taiwan policy director Chen Yu-chi (陳郁琦) said that as of May, Chinese tourists made up 57 percent of all international visitors.
The situation is worrisome because Chinese tourist groups have given rise to a range of problems in local communities, she said.
Groups of Chinese tourists have seriously damaged the environment in some areas and the working conditions of people in the tourism industry have deteriorated, she said.
Another major problem associated with the increased number of Chinese tourists is that tourism agencies take visitors shopping at a small number of stores with which they have a relationship, driving other stores out of business, she said.
She said the government must stop trying to increase the number of Chinese tourists, as no research has been done on what effect a further increase might have.
The authorities should stop raising the number of Chinese tourist groups and gradually tighten access until an area’s carrying capacity can fully cover the tourists who use it, she said.
The party would work to solve these problems if elected to the legislature, Chen said.
Green Party Taiwan member Tsai Chung-yueh (蔡中岳), who is from Hualien, said the monopoly problem is rampant in his hometown, especially among hotels, restaurants and stores.
He said that the once-famous Dongyang Collectibles Store (東洋藝品店), which sold jade, was forced out of business because its owner turned down offers made by travel agencies serving Chinese tourists.
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday established a friendship group with their counterparts in Ukraine to promote parliamentary exchanges between the two countries. A ceremony in Taipei for the Taiwan-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Association, initiated by DPP Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷), was attended by lawmakers and officials, including Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) and European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan Director Lutz Gullner. The increasingly dire situation in Ukraine is a global concern, and Taiwan cannot turn its back when the latter is in need of help, as the two countries share many common values and interests,
RSS