Local travel agencies are offering more vaccine tour packages to Guam next month to meet strong demand.
Lion Travel, the first travel agency in Taiwan to offer vaccine tours to Guam, said in a statement on Thursday that its five-day, four-night tour packages that departed on July 6, July 10, Wednesday last week and on Sunday, totaling 439 slots, were all sold out.
Another 305 people are booked on a 22-day package scheduled to depart on Thursday, Lion Travel said, adding that about 75 percent of the ticketholders are younger than 50 and many are traveling with children.
About 70 percent of the tickets for its seven-day packages — scheduled to depart on Tuesday next week, Aug. 2 and Aug. 8 — have been sold, it said, adding that it has started selling tickets for its five-day, four-night packages scheduled to depart on Aug. 14, Aug. 18, Aug. 22 and Aug. 26.
Local tour operator Phoenix Tours on Thursday said that it is offering a seven-day package to Guam scheduled to depart on Aug. 12 for NT$55,900, including hotel accommodation.
Ticketholders would fly to Guam on an EVA Airlines charter plane that could accommodate 301 passengers, it said, adding that some of those calling about the Aug. 12 package had already been to Guam on other packages.
Some travelers want to return to Guam to enjoy the water sports, while others want to take their children to have fun before summer vacation ends, Phoenix Tours said.
KKday, an e-commerce travel platform, said that its seven-day, six-night package to Guam scheduled to depart on Aug. 12 has received many inquiries from families.
The travel rush to Guam came after the Pacific island last month introduced an “Air V&V,” or vaccination and vacation, program that allows visitors to get vaccinated with their choice of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines.
Visitors to Guam are exempt from quarantine if they provide a negative COVID-19 test result upon arrival, but Taiwanese travelers returning from Guam need to quarantine for 14 days after they get home.
Rain is to increase from Wednesday morning as Severe Tropical Storm Kong-Rey approaches, with sea warnings to be issued as early as tomorrow afternoon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. As of 8am, Kong-Rey was 1,050km east-southeast of the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春) heading in a northwesterly direction toward Taiwan, CWA Forecast Center Director Lin Po-tung (林伯東) said. Rainfall is to increase from Wednesday morning, especially in northern Taiwan and Yilan County, he said. A sea warning is possible from tomorrow afternoon, while a land warning may be issued on Wednesday morning, he added. Kong-Rey may intensify into a moderate typhoon as it passes
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Taiwan yesterday issued warnings to four Chinese coast guard vessels that intruded into restricted waters around the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen Islands, according to the Coast Guard Administration (CGA). The four China Coast Guard ships were detected approaching restricted waters south of Kinmen at around 2 pm yesterday, the CGA’s Kinmen-Matsu Branch said in a statement. The CGA said it immediately deployed four patrol boats to closely monitor the situation. When the Chinese ships with the hull numbers "14512," "14609," "14603" and "14602" separately entered the restricted waters off Fuhsing islet (復興嶼), Zhaishan (翟山), Sinhu (新湖) and Liaoluo (料羅) at 3 pm, the Taiwanese patrol
A former member of the US Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), formerly known as SEAL Team 6, said in an interview with Business Insider that the elite unit’s role in a Taiwan Strait conflict would be more limited than some might expect. The report follows an earlier one in September by the Financial Times, which said the “clandestine US Navy commando unit” has been training for missions to help Taiwan if it is invaded by China. “You don’t use a scalpel for a job a hammer can do,” the former Navy Seal said to Business Insider on condition of anonymity.