Rare and high-end overseas travel tours have become more sought after than expected following Taiwan’s lifting of its COVID-19 pandemic border controls in October, a travel agency said on Sunday.
After the government lifted a ban on inbound and outbound tour groups, some companies inquired about overseas travel plans for corporations, Sunday Tours chairman Chen Yi-fu (陳依福) told a news conference.
Chen said that to his surprise, bookings for rare and high-end travel tours have been surging faster than before the pandemic.
Photo: Chen Hsin-yu, Taipei Times
For instance, 30 people have purchased a tour to the North Pole for next year priced at NT$1.28 million (US$41,675) per person, Chen said.
The company had expected to sell a South Pole tour package priced at NT$980,000 per person to about six clients, but eventually sold it to 30 people, he added.
Chen said that this might be because COVID-19 has changed people’s attitude toward travel, as after more than two years of border controls, many people are keen to travel again.
Travelers might also be worried that another pandemic could occur, or that if they were to catch COVID-19, they would have to undergo isolation, so they want to plan trips to “must-visit” tourist attractions without delay, Chen added.
Sunday Tours said that with travel expenses being much higher than before the pandemic, tourists are choosing longer tour itineraries.
For example, the company only offered one 11-day “Benelux” trip — which includes stops in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg — before the pandemic, but for next year, 11-day and 13-day itineraries have been arranged, Chen said.
However, the 11-day trip has been less popular than the 13-day tour, which has been fully booked.
This shows that tourists hope to have more time to experience local culture, history, scenery and food when traveling abroad, Chen added.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
MULTIPRONGED APPROACH: China has sought to pressure Palau across a number of fronts, but the island nation has staunchly resisted overtures to ditch Taiwan Palau has been firm in backing Taiwan despite Chinese pressure that uses tourism economics, cyberattacks and criminal infiltration as tools to threaten the Pacific ally into renouncing its recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state. The Presidential Office yesterday announced that Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) would visit Palau from Saturday to Wednesday next week at the invitation of Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. Whipps in April said in an interview that China had outspokenly asked Palau to “denounce Taiwan.” “And we have said: ‘We have no enemies, but nobody tells us who our friends are,’” he said. Whipps has told reporters multiple times
RSS