The Tourism Administration yesterday canceled a plan to reopen group tours to China as Beijing had not reciprocated the show of goodwill from Taiwan and had instead unilaterally altered flight routes.
China might not be safe for Taiwanese to visit in light of the current situation and now is not the right time to resume two-way group tours across the Taiwan Strait, the agency said in a statement.
The agency’s original plan was to resume Taiwan-China group tourism, which had been suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic, on March 1.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
This plan is no longer appropriate, as Beijing has failed to reciprocate by allowing Chinese tour groups to visit Taiwan and showed hostility by making a slew of unilateral changes to flight routes near Taiwan, the agency said.
Chinese civil aviation authorities on Tuesday last week announced changes to rules governing civilian aircraft’s usage of flight paths M503, W121, W122 and W123.
Taipei has criticized the move as a breach of a bilateral agreement inked in 2015 and a danger to national security, as these changes to air traffic would reduce the depth of air defense for Taiwan proper.
The Mainland Affairs Council in August last year agreed to a plan by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to unilaterally restore cross-strait tourism, which the government is still willing to entertain, the agency said.
“We continue to call on China to adjust its attitude toward Taiwan and allow Chinese tour groups to visit the nation as a show of goodwill,” the agency said, adding: “This will go a long way in repairing cross-strait exchanges in tourism.”
Starting today, tour agencies should stop organizing tours to China, it said.
However, Taiwanese who have already paid for group tours to China that are scheduled to depart between March 1 and May 31 would still be allowed to go to avoid legal conflict between consumers and tour agencies, the Tourism Administration said.
From June 1, groups tours would not be allowed, it added.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) told a news conference that officials in an interministerial meeting jointly decided to reverse course on travel.
“We last year agreed to this as a gesture of goodwill,” but China has responded by poaching the nation’s allies and altering flight paths, he said.
“Pressing on with this policy without getting a friendly response is not something we can tolerate,” he added.
Members of the tourism and travel industry protested the abrupt policy U-turn.
The tourism industry had “waited long and hard for the business to come back only to see it suddenly halted again,” High Quality of Travel Association chairman Ringo Lee (李奇嶽) said in a video, adding that the policy change “shocked and saddened business owners.”
President-elect William Lai (賴清德) should explain the government’s policy after assuming office, he added.
The Tourism Administration did not consult or inform the industry before announcing the ban on China-bound tours, Travel Agent Association chairman Hsiao Po-jen (蕭博仁) said.
“The government’s word has no value,” he said.
Asked to comment, Phoenix Tours (鳳凰旅遊) general manager Benjamin Pien (卞傑民) said the sudden policy change would disrupt the industry as hotel reservations and services had already been sold and made, and would result in losses for the industry.
“Such restrictions should not exist in a free market,” he said.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
RSS