More resources and personnel can be devoted to marketing Taiwan as an international tourist destination after the Tourism Administration is officially established on Sept. 15, Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) yesterday told a tourism forum in Taipei.
The legislature has passed a bill to upgrade the Tourism Bureau to the Tourism Administration, Wang said.
The timing of the new agency’s establishment is “perfect,” as the nation’s borders have completely reopened, he said.
Photo: CNA
“As of Monday, 2.25 million international tourists had visited Taiwan so far this year, which is a big leap toward the goal of attracting 6 million international tourists the Tourism Bureau has set for the whole year,” Wang said.
“The bureau has limited resources and personnel, but more funding and personnel can be available once it is officially upgraded to the Tourism Administration, which can offer more services,” he said.
The new agency would be given a quota of 282 employees, up from 182 at the Tourism Bureau, bureau director-general Chang Shi-chung (張錫聰) told reporters on the sidelines of the forum.
The bureau is compiling next fiscal year’s budget plan, which is to be deliberated at the next legislative session, he said.
Between 2020 and last year, the bureau’s annual budgets ranged from NT$11.5 billion to NT$12 billion (US$374.3 million to US$391 million), including funding to maintain its operations and the Tourism Development Fund, he added.
“Money for the Tourism Development Fund comes from airport service fees, which reported a shortfall during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the bureau will soon be upgraded to the Tourism Administration, the Executive Yuan will coordinate between government agencies to adjust the funding for the new agency,” Chang said.
The new agency would also be given some decisionmaking power so that it can respond to tourism affairs more flexibly and swiftly, he said.
Once the agency is established, it would coordinate matters related to food, lodging, travel, shopping and travel, he added.
Before it proposes legislation governing the enforcement of international tourism campaigns, it would first increase employee quotas for its overseas branch offices and assign regions of responsibility to each of them, Chang said.
Regarding the resumption of cross-strait tourism, Wang told forum participants that it is a matter of equal treatment, and not a political issue.
“Although Beijing last month announced that it is welcoming tour groups from Taiwan, it has since 2019 banned individual tourists from visiting Taiwan and in 2020 banned travel agencies from organizing tours to Taiwan. The two sides will not be equal if we allow Taiwanese tourists to travel to China while Beijing keeps its people from coming to Taiwan. We want to make this position clear in our negotiations with Chinese tourism officials,” Wang said.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS