Travel industry representatives from both sides of the Taiwan Strait will gather in Taipei for the first time next Thursday and Friday to discuss market development and to cultivate greater familiarity with the Taiwanese market, a spokesman for the Travel Quality Assurance Association (TQAA) said yesterday.
The TQAA, organizer of the 12th Cross-Strait Travel Industry Forum, hopes that more than 1,000 representatives will participate in the meeting, TQAA secretary-general Chen Yi-chuan (陳怡全) said.
“As most of the restrictions on visits to Taiwan by Chinese tourists have been lifted, we hope to introduce the Taiwanese travel market to our Chinese counterparts,” Chen said.
He said Shao Qiwei (邵琪偉), chairman of China’s National Tourism Administration, will attend the forum in his capacity as chairman of the Cross-Strait Tourism Exchange Association and is scheduled to meet with his Taiwanese counterpart, Janice Lai (賴瑟珍), director-general of the Tourism Bureau.
Shao will be accompanied by delegates from 16 Chinese provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, and more than 400 members of China’s travel industry, Chen said.
Taiwan will be represented by officials from 13 city and county governments and 400 delegates from the local travel industry.
The TQAA will arrange for the Chinese delegation to visit various scenic areas to get a firsthand look at tourism resources before they return home on March 4, he added.
In the past, similar meetings of travel industry representatives from both sides of the Taiwan Strait have been held in different provinces in China so that the Taiwanese delegations could gain a better understanding of the vast Chinese market.
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