The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to promote “epidemic prevention tours” from Wednesday next week, when President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is to start her second term in office, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday.
At Taipei’s Nangang Railway Station (南港), where he was scheduled to inspect stores and restaurants, Lin yesterday morning announced three phases to gradually reopen the nation’s tourism market.
He spoke with reporters after a briefing by contractors managing the station’s floor space, saying that the tours would be the first phase.
Photo: Cheng Wei-chi, Taipei Times
“We plan to start promoting ‘epidemic prevention tours’ from Wednesday next week and we have been working with travel service operators on a range of tour arrangements,” Lin said.
“We also want tourism upgrade program trainees to set the example and show us how to arrange the tours,” he said. “This would be like field training for them.”
Asked when the government would move to the next phase of further opening up the nation’s tourism market by subsidizing tour groups and individual travelers on safe domestic tours, Lin said that would depend on the Central Epidemic Command Center.
However, the ministry has already made preparations to combine that phase with existing plans to expand a domestic tourism subsidy program, for which it has budgeted NT$2 billion (US$66.8 million), he said.
Various government agencies would also offer coupons to boost consumption, he added.
“We hope to ‘start a fire’ in this phase that would enable the tourism industry to begin recovering from the downturn,” Lin said.
“How strong the fire will be depends on how well the industry recovers. If the fire rages as soon as it is lit, then we can consider extending the time in this phase,” he said.
“However, if it appears that we will need more logs to just start the fire, then we would consider moving the [NT$2 billion] budget forward,” he added.
The third phase would be reopening the nation to international tourists, Lin said, adding that some people have suggested that Taiwan should form an international tourism alliance with countries that have succeeded in controlling the spread of COVID-19.
Regardless of whether the next phase involves epidemic prevention tours or government-subsidized safe tours, Lin said that the ministry would focus on subsidizing group tours on weekdays, otherwise tourist attractions and hotels would be inundated on weekends.
The ministry instituted preventive measures soon after the first COVID-19 cases were reported in Wuhan, China, in late December last year.
The ministry on Jan. 21 banned the entry of tour groups from Wuhan, while those already in Taiwan were asked to conclude their trips early and leave the nation immediately. It later barred all Chinese tour groups.
Travel by Taiwanese tourists to China has also been banned, while all travelers are required to fill out health declaration cards before boarding outbound flights.
The Tourism Bureau, which has coordinated with local governments to provide hotel or hostel rooms for travelers asked to undergo quarantine or isolation, said that the number of rooms available for such use has increased from 2,710 on March 25 to 7,000.
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