The tourism sector is facing a bleak outlook as long as Taiwan’s low COVID-19 vaccination rate makes it impossible to reopen the nation’s borders to international visitors, lawmakers and travel industry experts told a news conference hosted by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-affiliated National Policy Foundation yesterday.
The event focused on the sector’s problems and opportunities amid a dramatic decline in international business since the government imposed border restrictions last year.
Taiwan’s comparatively low vaccination rate is the main factor in the prolonged crisis in the international tourism market, KMT Legislator Charles Chen (陳以信) said.
Screengrab from a National Policy Foundation livestream
Apart from raising the vaccination rate, the government should issue immunity passports that are recognized by other countries before international travel can be fully reopened, Chen said.
Tour operators with focus on domestic tourism sustained greater financial losses during this year’s level 3 COVID-19 alert than last year, Chen said. However, they would receive less relief funds from the government this time than they did last year, he added.
Taiwan Tourist Development Association vice chairman Ko Mu-chou (柯牧洲) said that most travel agents are struggling to survive as they hope that borders would be reopened once a large-enough share of Taiwanese are vaccinated.
“Travel agents have not earned much income for almost two years. The government should let us know if border restrictions could be slightly eased if the vaccination rate rises to a certain percentage. We need specific promises from the government so we can find ways to survive,” Ko said.
“The Central Epidemic Command Center in May promised that an immunity passport would be launched soon, but we have yet to see any details,” he said.
Taiwan International Tourist and Rescue Association chairman Roger Hsu (許高慶) said that aside from a quarantine-free travel arrangement with Palau, Taiwan should work toward a similar agreement with Guam.
Opening travel to Guam would also address the nation’s vaccine shortage, he said.
“The problem with the government is that it neither recognizes immunity passports issued by other countries nor provides a solution for Taiwanese that is recognized by the international community,” Hsu said.
China Airlines and EVA Airways would soon adopt an air travel passport system developed by the International Air Transport Association to facilitate check-in and boarding procedures, and the government should use the system as the basis to develop an immunity passport, Hsu said.
Domestic Travel Development Association chairman Lai Chun-chieh (賴俊傑) and Certified Travel Councilors Association chairman Chang Ming-cheng (張明琛) said that government relief funds offered only a temporary and imperfect solution to the problems travel agents face, adding that propping up the sector through emergency funding is not sustainable.
Raising the vaccination rate is the only way to save the tourism industry, they said, adding that the government should inform travel agents of the conditions that must be met before it issues vaccination passports or lifts the ban on organizing outbound tours.
KMT Legislator Chen Yi-ming (陳宜民) said that the key to travel agents’ survival is that international visitors and Taiwanese living abroad can enter Taiwan freely.
“The government in April said that it is considering allowing fully vaccinated people to enter the nation, requiring them to quarantine for seven days and observe their health for another seven, instead of the 14-day quarantine requirement,” he said. “It also said that the details were to be finalized in May. We have not heard anything about it since.”
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