A group of travel industry representatives from China’s Xiamen City arrived in Kinmen County on Wednesday for a three-day familiarization tour, Kinmen County Deputy Commissioner Li Wen-liang (李文良) said.
The group, led by Xiamen Tourism Association secretary-general Lin Feng (林峰), arrived at Kinmen’s Shuitou Pier earlier in the day.
They were greeted by officials including Li, Kinmen County Council Speaker Hung Yun-tien (洪允典) and several councilors.
Photo: Wu Cheng-ting, Taipei
Li welcomed the group and said he looked forward to hearing their suggestions which would help the Kinmen County Government enhance its travel industry in preparation for the return of Chinese tour groups after a five-year hiatus.
The group’s arrival came after the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced on Aug. 30 that China would soon lift restrictions on group and independent travel for residents in China’s Fujian Province to Kinmen, which are just off the Fujian coast across from Xiamen City.
This followed a meeting between several Kinmen County councilors — who were among those greeting the Xiamen City group on Wednesday — and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) on Aug. 22 in Beijing.
China halted independent travel to Taiwan on Aug. 1, 2019, citing the poor state of cross-strait relations.
It suspended group travel to other countries in early 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began.
The Xiamen group’s first stop was the Shuitou settlement in Jincheng Township (金城), famous for its traditional Minnan-style architecture.
During its trip, the group is also scheduled to visit sites such as Shanhou Folk Culture Village, Chen Jing-lan Western-style House and Tianpu Reservoir, which draws water from Longhu Lake in Fujian, China.
The itinerary also includes a meeting with the Kinmen County Travel Agency Association.
Li said that Kinmen has received an application from the first group of Chinese tourists set to visit since the hiatus. If all goes to plan, they could arrive as early as Sunday or Monday.
Li added that if travel resumes smoothly, it could help increase the number of tourists visiting Kinmen via the cross-strait ferry services under the “small three links” to pre-pandemic levels of about 400,000 to 450,000 a year.
The small three links between Kinmen and Xiamen, which were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, resumed on Jan. 7 last year.
As of the end of last month, more than 1.5 million passengers, the majority being Taiwanese, had traveled between Kinmen and Xiamen via the small three links, with 800,000 of those trips occurring this year, Kinmen’s Department of Tourism said.
This suggests that if both governments across the Taiwan Strait agree to lift restrictions and allow Chinese to visit Kinmen via the small three links, tourism could return to pre-pandemic levels, the department added.
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