The Legislative Yuan’s Transportation Committee yesterday urged the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to come up with more effective measures to boost the number of international visitors arriving on cruise ships.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) suggested that the ministry considering allowing gambling activities on Taiwanese liners when they are in international waters as a way of competing with international cruise lines.
The call came after representatives of Taiwan International Port Corp (TIPC), the Marine Port Bureau and the Tourism Bureau gave a presentation to the committee, telling it that the government aims to attract 1 million cruise ship visitors this year, which would be an increase of 33 percent over last year’s arrivals.
Photo: Fang Bin-chao, Taipei Times
Tourism Bureau data showed that 19,513 international tourists arrived on cruise ships in the first quarter of this year, a 106 percent increase over the same period last year.
The most significant growth has been in the number of visitors from the Philippines arriving by ship, from 85 in the first quarter of last year to 4,762 in the first quarter this year.
While 3,403 Chinese tourists arrived between January and March last year, only 432 came during the same timeframe this year, Tourism Bureau data showed.
TIPC said no Chinese cruise ship has applied to dock this year at any of the nation’s international ports.
Cheng said that Taiwan was the second-largest Asian market for cruise ship visitors in 2015, accounting for 11 percent of such tourists based on the data from Cruise Lines International Association, while Japan accounted for 8.6 percent.
That fact is significant given that Japan has a population of about 126 million while Taiwan’s is 23 million, the lawmaker said.
Taiwan has more people taking cruises than Japan because the ships offer so many entertainment facilities, especially casinos, he said.
Some cruise line operators even highlight their casinos in their advertisements because they know that gambling is illegal in many Asian countries, he said.
Cruise ship casinos can operate legally when the ships are in international waters.
The government only allows casinos to be built on outlying islands, based on Article 12 of the Offshore Islands Development Act (離島建設條例), but Penghu and Matsu residents have voted overwhelmingly to reject the establishment of casinos on their islands in the referendums held between 2009 and last year, he said.
Kinmen is to hold its first referendum on the issue in October this year, he added.
“We are kidding ourselves if we think there are no gamblers in Taiwan,” Cheng said, adding that many online gaming sites even have funding from Taiwanese investors.
The DPP is against gambling, but the ministry and Tourism Bureau need to study the gambling issue and find out how much money is going to gambling, he said.
Cheng asked the officials if it would be viable for Taiwanese cruise ships departing from outlying islands to offer three-day or two-day tours that allowed gambling in international waters.
Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said that the ministry would review Cheng’s proposals, but the nation needs to reach a consensus on whether gambling at the sea should be allowed.
Wang told the committee that cruise liners registered in Taiwan are considered part of the nation’s territory, meaning that their passengers must still follow the nation’s laws even in the international waters.
Cruise ships that carry a flag of convenience are free from Taiwanese laws once they reach international waters, he said.
DPP Legislator Huang Kuo-shu (黃國書) and his New Power Party colleague, Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸), said that the government should try to increase the number of cruise ship tourists visiting central Taiwan.
Ten cruise ships arrived at Taichung Port last year, but only two have applied to stop there this year, the lawmakers said.
The Tourism Bureau should develop eight-hour tours for tourists who arrive in Taichung for a one-day port call, Huang said.
The US-Japan joint statement released on Friday not mentioning the “one China” policy might be a sign that US President Donald Trump intends to decouple US-China relations from Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said. Following Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday, the US and Japan issued a joint statement where they reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Trump has not personally brought up the “one China” policy in more than a year, National Taiwan University Department of Political Science Associate Professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民)
‘NEVER!’ Taiwan FactCheck Center said it had only received donations from the Open Society Foundations, which supports nonprofits that promote democratic values Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC) has never received any donation from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a cofounder of the organization wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday. The Taipei-based organization was established in 2018 by Taiwan Media Watch Foundation and the Association of Quality Journalism to monitor and verify news and information accuracy. It was officially registered as a foundation in 2021. National Chung Cheng University communications professor Lo Shih-hung (羅世宏), a cofounder and chairman of TFC, was responding to online rumors that the TFC receives funding from the US government’s humanitarian assistance agency via the Open Society Foundations (OSF),
ANNUAL LIGHT SHOW: The lanterns are exhibited near Taoyuan’s high-speed rail station and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the airport MRT line More than 400 lanterns are to be on display at the annual Taiwan Lantern Festival, which officially starts in Taoyuan today. The city is hosting the festival for the second time — the first time was in 2016. The Tourism Administration held a rehearsal of the festival last night. Chunghwa Telecom donated the main lantern of the festival to the Taoyuan City Government. The lanterns are exhibited in two main areas: near the high-speed rail (HSR) station in Taoyuan, which is at the A18 station of the Taoyuan Airport MRT, and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the MRT
An alleged US government plan to encourage Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to form a joint venture with Intel to boost US chipmaking would place the Taiwanese foundry giant in a more disadvantageous position than proposed tariffs on imported chips, a semiconductor expert said yesterday. If TSMC forms a joint venture with its US rival, it faces the risk of technology outflow, said Liu Pei-chen (劉佩真), a researcher at the Taiwan Industry Economics Database of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. A report by international financial services firm Baird said that Asia semiconductor supply chain talks suggest that the US government would
RSS