Lawmakers yesterday asked the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) to consider offering more travel vouchers to boost tourism after more than 9 million people signed up for its free draw.
The government last week began allowing people to register for digital or print versions of its Quintuple Stimulus Vouchers. They can also sign up for a draw for an additional 7.78 million vouchers provided by various ministries.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs is offering food vouchers to the first 4 million people who register for the digital version.
Travel vouchers offered by the ministry — 1.2 million in total — were the most popular, with 9.36 million people registering for the free draw as of Sunday night.
A travel voucher is equivalent to NT$1,000 and can be used to pay for tourism expenses.
In a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) asked Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) if his ministry could offer more travel vouchers.
The lot-winning rate for a travel voucher is about 13 percent, which is even lower than winning a scratch-card lottery, Lin said.
“The popularity of travel vouchers shows that people want to venture out after being stuck inside for three months. Given that the pandemic has hurt the travel industry the most, the ministry should be more generous and offer more vouchers,” Lin said.
Wang said that the ministry has a very limited budget, but would evaluate the situation.
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
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