The travel industry and airlines said they were ready to cope with the repercussions of the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) decision to raise the travel alert for China to yellow after Beijing confirmed its first case of swine flu in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.
Tourism Bureau Deputy Director General David Hsieh (謝謂君) said his agency would send out official notices informing travel agencies of the change.
MAC follows the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ three-color travel advisory.
A Yellow Alert means travelers should exercise caution.
The Tourism Bureau said travelers were entitled to cancel their group tour if they were scheduled to travel to countries on the “Yellow Alert” list and refunds for the tours should be handled under Article 27 of regulations governing the stipulations of standardized contracts between travel agents and their customers.
Customers who cancel their trips more than 31 days in advance are eligible for a 90 percent refund, while those who do so three weeks in advance are eligible for an 80 percent refund. Customers are entitled to a 50 percent refund if they call off their trip the day before the scheduled departure.
However, customers who wait until their scheduled departure date to cancel their trip will not be eligible for a refund.
Meanwhile, Roget Hsu (許高慶), secretary-general of the Travel Agent Association, said the number of travelers heading to Sichuan dropped drastically after last May’s earthquake, although the numbers recently began picking up after China Airlines (CAL) and EVA Airways (EVA) started offering direct charter flights to Chengdu.
As some Chinese tourists from Sichuan arrived in Taiwan on charter flights, both CAL and EVA said yesterday they would comply with government efforts to prevent the spread of the virus.
CAL said it would sterilize aircraft returning from flights to H1N1-infected countries and would hand out face masks to passengers showing symptoms.
EVA said it would check if any passengers have a fever and provide face masks if necessary.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
RSS