The nation has no plans to open its borders to international tourists next month, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday.
Su made the remarks after travel industry representatives met with Vice President William Lai (賴清德) on Monday, asking the government to announce a specific timeline on when borders would be reopened.
They also asked the government to continue subsidizing the travel industry for fully complying with the nation’s disease prevention policy.
Photo: CNA
“Our current policy of having zero severe cases of COVID-19 while controlling a rise in confirmed cases with mild symptoms is unchanged, but we will gradually and steadily relax disease prevention measures,” Su said, in response to a question from Chinese Nationalist Party Legislator (KMT) Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁).
Su also denied that the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) is to cease operations in June.
“The CECC helps monitor the local COVID-19 outbreak, which remains stable at the moment,” Su said. “While we have seen an increase in confirmed cases, 99.6 percent of them reported no or mild symptoms.”
Su’s remarks were expected, as the government is unlikely to reopen the nation’s borders amid a domestic outbreak of COVID-19, Travel Quality Assurance Association (TQAA) chairman Ringo Lee (李奇嶽) said.
“Aside from raising the percentage of people receiving booster shots, the government must tell the public clearly what its policy will be going forward, whether it is pursuing a policy of ‘zero COVID’ or ‘living with the virus,’” Lee said.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, said earlier this year that removing quarantine requirements for all international visitors is unlikely this year, Lee said.
No foreign tourists will visit Taiwan as long as the quarantine requirement stays, regardless of the length of the quarantine, he said.
The same rule applies to outbound tourists, he added.
In other news, TQAA warned that disputes between local tourists and travel agencies are expected to soar next month as people cancel tours in the face of rising numbers of locally transmitted cases.
About 20 to 30 percent of domestic tour groups have been canceled because of the latest outbreak, Lee said, adding that tour sales have dropped 50 percent compared with before the spike in COVID-19 cases.
Most cancelations came from schools and government agencies, he said, adding that private companies have postponed corporate tours as well.
While travel agencies can negotiate with tourists about postponing tours, the most complicated part is when trips cannot be postponed and tourists want to cancel the trips altogether, Lee said.
Lee cited as an example a family of eight who wanted to cancel a family trip because one of them received a notice to observe self-health management guidelines.
The family and the travel agency settled the dispute over refunds through arbitration at the association, he said.
The association receives about 40 to 50 telephone calls per day inquiring about tour cancelations and refunds, association secretary-general Amy Wu (吳美惠) said.
“People need to realize that they will incur fees for canceling tours without a legitimate reason,” Wu said, adding that reservation fees for air tickets and accommodation are non-refundable.
“If negotiations between travelers, travel agencies, hoteliers and airlines fail to produce any agreement, we will have to settle the dispute based on terms of standardized contracts between travelers and travel agencies,” Wu said.
Travelers who are required to quarantine or cancel school trips because of the government’s disease prevention policy will receive a refund after non-refundable fees are deducted, the association said.
Should travelers cancel tours for personal reasons, they will receive a refund after deducting non-refundable fees and compensation to travel agencies for losses based on the interval between the cancelation date and the departure date for the trip, it said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at