The Executive Yuan is planning to extend a domestic travel subsidy program launched earlier this year to the end of next month to boost travel and shopping during the Lunar New Year holiday, an official said yesterday.
The program, which aims to boost domestic travel in fall and winter, has been met with a positive response and would encourage more travel during the Lunar New Year holiday if extended for another month, an Executive Yuan official familiar with the matter said.
Under the program, launched by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in September, travelers who are not on an organized tour would receive a subsidy of NT$1,000 (US$32.78) per room for staying at hotels that are part of the program.
Photo: Lee Hsin-fang, Taipei Times
In addition, travelers would receive four night market vouchers per room with a total value of NT$200 from the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
While the program was originally scheduled to finish at the end of this month, the government plans to extend it after hotels asked for the program to be prolonged, the official said.
As the Lunar New Year holiday is a popular time for travel, extending the program to cover that period would help boost the tourism industry, the official said, adding that the Executive Yuan has already held an interdepartmental meeting to discuss the matter.
The ministry has issued 585,000 night market vouchers, but only 60 percent of them have been used, the official said.
Of the government’s NT$100 million monthly budget earmarked for the vouchers, only about 60 percent has been used, the official said, adding that extending the expiration date of the vouchers and the subsidy program would likely encourage more travel and shopping.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) yesterday authorized the execution of convicted murderer Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), the first death row prisoner to be put to death since President William Lai (賴清德) took office. Huang was to be executed via a firing squad yesterday evening, which would leave Taiwan with 36 convicts on death row. Huang on Oct. 1, 2013, broke into his ex-girlfriend Wang Ping-chih’s (王品智) residence in New Taipei City, where he raped and murdered Wang. He also killed Wang’s mother. Huang was bitter over the breakup and her accusation that he had stolen NT$200,000 (US$6,074) from her bank account, prosecutors said
RSS