Taiwanese travel agencies are looking to partner with Japanese counterparts to promote tours to the East Asian country, after Tokyo on Wednesday eased travel restrictions, the Tourism Bureau has said.
The Japanese government raised the weekly inbound traveler cap from 20,000 to 50,000 and dropped the requirement that tourists arrive in guided tour groups.
The new rules would take effect on Wednesday next week, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said.
Photo: CNA
Authorities would release more details soon, Japanese media reported.
While travelers to Japan would not need to be accompanied by a tour guide, they must still follow the itineraries set by travel agencies, media reports said.
The bureau said local travel agencies could sell their customers flight and hotel packages, and put them in touch with Japanese travel agencies, who would take care of them while they are in Japan.
However, traveling to Japan would be more complicated than in the past, as tourists would need Japanese travel agencies to help them purchase insurance plans, and vouch for the purposes of their trips and their health condition to apply for a tourist visa, Chung Hsing Travel Service president Ringo Lee (李奇嶽) said.
The process would likely cost ￥10,000 and ￥15,000 (US$72 to US$108) for a five-to-seven day trip, Lee said.
The number of Taiwanese heading to Japan could rise 30 percent following the easing, he added
Also starting from Wednesday next week, travelers who have received three shots of a COVID-19 vaccine would not need to present the negative result of a polymerase chain reaction test upon boarding flights to Japan.
However, a shortage of flights, rising airfare costs and the month-long wait time for the approval of travel visas could discourage people from traveling to Japan, Lee said.
The daily number of arrivals to Japan was about 14,000 in July and about 20,000 last month, Immigration Services Agency of Japan data showed.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
RSS