The government should work with travel agencies on “smarter” tourism and seek to turn a crisis into gain, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday.
Chu accused President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration of failing to implement efficient tourism policies, which he said would lead to Taiwan failing to develop a trillion-dollar tourism industry and generating NT$30 billion (US$986.7 million) in income from tourism per year.
Chu said that Taiwanese in 2019 spent NT$20.5 billion on overseas travel, more than that year’s combined income of firms engaged in domestic tourism of NT$14.4 billion.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Chu said that under the previous KMT administration, foreign tourism grew 15 to 16 percent per year, but growth since 2017 has slowed to 2 to 3 percent.
The nation’s competitiveness in attracting tourists has dropped from 32nd in the world to 37th, while the nation’s regional competitors — Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand — have seen rapid growth, he said.
This is a serious issue for the Tsai administration, Chu said.
Taiwan has not effectively marketed its Chinese cultural background, its indigenous cultures or local cuisine, while foreign media described the nation as a “pedestrian hell,” Chu said.
Programs implemented by the Tsai administration to stimulate domestic travel do not meet the needs of Taiwanese, he said, adding that domestic travelers on average spend 1.47 days at their destination, while international travelers spend 6.76 days.
‘TWENTY CHINESE CITIES’
Chu urged the Tsai administration to work to increase the number of cities in China that offer direct flights to Taiwan to 20 from four to make it easier for Chinese to travel to Taiwan.
Beijing has said it is willing to work with Taiwan on facilitating travel, Chu said.
The Tsai administration should not be blinded by ideology and should welcome tourists from all nations, including China, he added.
The Tsai administration’s goal to entice 6 million foreign and 1 million Chinese tourists to travel to Taiwan this year is an empty slogan as long as it does not work to increase the number of flight connections, Chu said.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS