The Central Epidemic Command Center’s lifting of the dine-in restriction at restaurants for outbound travelers at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport would only slightly help them recover their business, as the number of passengers accessing the airport is expected to plummet to fewer than 1 million this year, Taoyuan International Airport Corp senior vice president Hong Yu-fen (洪玉芬) said yesterday.
That would be the worst year since the airport opened in 1979, when it was accessed by 4.04 million, Hong said.
A total of 609,572 travelers accessed the airport from January to August — 266,897 inbound travelers and 342,675 outbound travelers, she said.
Photo: CNA
In August, 33,724 inbound passengers and 45,616 outbound passengers accessed the airport, she added.
Last year, the airport was accessed by 7.43 million travelers as the nation had yet to implement strict border controls to contain the COVID-19 pandemic in January and February, Hong said.
The airport accommodated nearly 49 million travelers in 2019, she said, adding that the number had “fallen off a cliff” and “tumbled like an avalanche” due to the pandemic.
Taiwan’s rising COVID-19 vaccination rate has not helped increase the number of outbound passengers, as most nations have yet to ease border controls in view of the threat posed by the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, she added.
Only 30 percent of restaurants at the airport managed to maintain their operations thanks to government subsidies and business from airport employees, Hong said.
“We hope that lifting the dine-in restriction for outbound travelers will help restaurants recover 50 percent of their business,” she said.
Inbound travelers and aircrew are still banned from dining in the airport’s restaurants and must leave through prearranged routes, she added.
Meanwhile, the Taiwan Visitors Association yesterday announced that the Taipei International Travel Fair is to be held from Nov. 5 to Nov. 8 at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Hall.
The fair would have 800 booths this year, down from 1,000 last year, the association said.
Although airlines are skipping this year’s travel fair, as they did last year, participants at the fair would include government agencies, hoteliers, bed and breakfast operators, and travel agencies, it said.
Early-bird tickets to the fair are on sale, while healthcare workers can visit the fair for free to thank them for the hard work and sacrifices they made during a domestic COVID-19 outbreak.
The association is offering 10,000 free tickets to people making a blood donation between Oct. 31 and Nov. 6 at 18 stations managed by the Taipei Blood Center in Taipei and New Taipei City.
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