Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) officials yesterday called for an investigation into reports that travel agencies had been using a government subsidy designated for domestic tourism to arrange trips to China.
TSU Department of Organization director Chang Chao-lin (張兆林) cited as an example a Taipei-based firm that was offering a four-day tour, allowing travelers to spend two days in Kinmen and then taking a ferry to spend the other two in Xiamen, China.
Chang said the travel agency was taking advantage of a NT$300 million (US$9.5 million) government stimulus package to boost domestic tourism that was announced last month by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
“The program was designed to revitalize the nation’s tourism industry, including hotels, restaurants and domestic tour-related sectors. It was to boost the local economy for certain counties and cities that had been hurt by the Chinese government’s decision to cut the number of Chinese tourists coming to Taiwan,” Chang said.
However, some “unscrupulous” travel firms are taking advantage of the subsidy for domestic travel by offering a combined Kinmen-Xiamen trip, and using bogus receipts and accounting reports to claim subsidies, the TSU said.
TSU Publicity Department deputy director Chen Chia-lin (陳嘉霖) said the government must crack down on this scheme, adding that other domestic travel agencies were planning to offer similar tours to China.
Chen accused the Tourism Bureau of negligence, saying it had not properly scrutinized travel agencies.
It is unacceptable for Taiwanese taxpayers to subsidize people taking pleasure trips to China, he said.
“I blame the Tourism Bureau for failing to strictly monitor the program. It was supposed to revitalize Taiwan’s tourism industry, but some of the money is being spent in Chinese destinations. We must punish the violating travel agencies and stop this from happening,” he added.
Chen said that this is an opportunity for the nation’s travel agencies to shift their focus from low-cost, low-quality packages for Chinese tourists to quality packages targeting visitors from Japan, South Korea, the US, Canada and Europe.
The bureau said it had already told the travel agency in question to stop offering such packages, adding that subsidies would not be granted to any travel agency that violates the rules.
Arrangements that would qualify for the subsidy include one-day tours, as well as packages for trips of several days with subsidies of as much as NT$15,000 to be granted to one-day tour groups, while tours organized by schools, private organizations, and residential borough associations could receive NT$5,000 in subsidy per group.
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