Taiwan is soon to reopen its border to Chinese tourists coming from a third country as the government comes under pressure to break the impasse between Taipei and Beijing that has crippled cross-strait tourism, Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said on Friday.
The idea to allow Chinese tourists traveling from a third place outside China has been under discussion within the government for quite a while, and details on how to implement the new policy would be announced soon, Chen said on Facebook on Friday evening.
Chen’s post came one day after business groups and local travel operators voiced their frustration at the impasse in cross-strait travel that began in 2016.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Beijing has maintained its ban on group tours coming to Taiwan even after it announced on Thursday that it has added another 78 countries to the list of destinations where Chinese tourists are allowed to go on group tours after it loosened its COVID-19 travel restrictions in January.
Hsu Shu-po (許舒博), General Chamber of Commerce president on Thursday said that the government should step up efforts to end the stalemate in cross-strait relations.
Meanwhile, local travel agencies on the same day called on the government to extend an olive branch to Beijing by removing the ban on Taiwanese tour groups visiting China, a suggestion they have made multiple times before.
A source in the travel business, who asked to remain anonymous, on Thursday said that travel operators might take to the streets to make their voices heard if the government continues to remain unresponsive to their appeal.
The government initially responded to the exclusion of Taiwan on China’s list of 138 destinations for outbound group tours by repeating calls for Beijing to scrap the ban against the nation.
The government has urged China to open talks with Taiwan on resuming travel between the two sides on the basis of equality and reciprocity, to restore cross-strait exchanges in a healthy and orderly manner after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The government had expressed a wish to Beijing, before China’s announcement on Thursday, that both sides simultaneously lift their respective bans on tourists, but Beijing has yet to respond, officials said.
Since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office in May 2016, the country has seen a sharp decline in the number of Chinese tourists as a result of China gradually tightening its control and management of tourists to Taiwan, because Tsai refuses to endorse the notion of “one China.”
Beijing has banned Chinese tourists from traveling independently to Taiwan since Aug. 1, 2019, citing “current cross-strait relations,” and banned group travel in January 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
China’s ban also includes applicants to Taiwanese universities.
Taiwan allows individuals to go to China for travel or study.
However, Taiwan has maintained its ban on travel agencies organizing group travel to China, which was part of its COVID-19 control measures, and has not reopened its borders to Chinese tourists.
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