A ban on tour groups to China is a bad policy that hinders normal exchanges with China and escalates tensions across the Taiwan Strait, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, said yesterday.
Hou made the comments at a luncheon in Taipei organized by Taiwanese tourism operators. The event, which also featured other KMT members, was reportedly attended by nearly 7,000 people in the tourism industry. They collectively endorsed Hou’s presidential bid in next year’s election.
A Taiwanese tourist was killed and three were injured last week in a traffic accident in China’s Xinjiang Province. Some have attributed the lack of protection for Taiwanese tourists traveling in China to the government’s group tour ban, which has led to travelers’ forming private tour groups to China instead of through travel agencies.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
“Many people are concerned that something worrisome might happen given the geopolitical factors in the Taiwan Strait. This has in turn reduced the number of Chinese tourists and international travelers coming to Taiwan. As such, the nation recorded only 4.36 million international arrivals as of last month, only half the number recorded during the same period in 2019,” Hou said.
In Taiwan, international tourist numbers have only returned to 50 percent of pre-COVID-19-pandemic levels, compared with 70 to 75 percent in other countries, because the number of Chinese tourists has fallen from 2.4 million in 2019 to 150,000, Hou said in his speech at the luncheon.
The problem with Taiwan is bad cross-strait policy, he said.
“We do not need more fighter jets flying across the Taiwan Strait. Instead, we need more passenger jets and good timing to create peace,” he added.
High Quality of Travel Association chairman Ringo Lee (李奇嶽) said the ban has led to many privately organized tour groups to China, which lack protections in case of disputes over itineraries and travel arrangements.
“Tourists can only file lawsuits in China if disputes occur, but how many of them have the time to do so? The tour group ban to China should be quickly lifted,” Lee said. “Emphasizing ideological differences between China and Taiwan is meaningless.”
Failure to have normal exchanges between China and Taiwan reduces the number of people traveling across the Strait and affects workers in the travel industry, he said.
“Of the 17 million outbound tourists from Taiwan in 2019, about 4 million went to China. So far this year, about 1 million have gone to China. This shows there is still a need for travel to China,” he said.
The Mainland Affairs Council has insisted that China allow its tourists to come to Taiwan before it would allow tour groups to China, while the number of Chinese tourists to Taiwan would be capped at 2,000 per day, which has irritated China, Lee said.
Such a policy never applies for Taiwanese tourists to Japan, which is five times more than the number of Japanese tourists to Taiwan, Lee said.
Travel Agent Association honorary chairman Yao Ta-kuang (姚大光) said that the lack of cross-strait tourism exchanges has caused Taiwan’s travel industry to lose 40 percent of its business.
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