Travel agencies are clamoring to offer Palau tours in preparation for next week’s opening of a “travel bubble” between the two nations, with packages ranging from NT$68,000 to NT$90,000.
Shortly after government agencies last week confirmed that the “bubble” would open on Thursday next week, China Airlines said it would offer flights on Thursdays and Sundays, serving 220 travelers from Taiwan weekly.
As all travelers are required to be in tour groups, four of the nation’s top six agencies — Phoenix Tours, Life Tour, Lion Travel and Giant Tour — began selling tours last week, while DTS Group and KKday are to start selling packages in the next few days.
Photo courtesy of Lion Travel
Phoenix Tours secured 13 seats on the first two flights for its tours of Airai State.
For NT$69,900, people can board the first flight to Palau and stay for four days, while people on the April 4 flight can stay for five days for NT$75,900.
The tour promises excursions to “marvelous” coral atolls, marine reserves, sunken remains of Japanese Zero fighters from World War II and other attractions.
Phoenix Tours said that it received two or three group bookings of three to four people each on its first day of sales.
Giant Tour is offering tours of the Rock Islands in four-day packages starting from NT$68,000.
“Ever since the news broke about the ‘travel bubble,’ our telephones have not stopped ringing,” a Giant Tour representative said.
Life Tour has added kayaking, and a drive to Babeldaob’s tropical forests and volcanoes to its five-day itinerary for NT$82,000.
Lion Travel have four and five-day tours ranging from NT$70,000 to NT$90,000.
Adopting a slightly different strategy, KKday is offering people NT$99 raffle tickets for a chance to win a free tour or gift package before it begins selling tours next week.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS