Some Taiwanese and Chinese travel agencies are allegedly offering fake self-guided tours in China, despite reciprocal bans on tourism groups issued by the two governments, sources said.
The Summer Travel Expo, opened on Friday at the Taiwan World Trade Center in Taipei, featured nearly 200 tourism-related entities selling various packaged tours, including China’s Association For Tourism Exchange Across the Taiwan Straits.
A number of China-based travel agencies promoted China’s scenic attractions and packaged tours but refrained from giving out information on tour dates or price.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Taipei and Beijing have mutually banned traveling in tour groups.
One Taiwanese travel agency’s Web site advertised self-guided tours to China featuring tour guides, buses, prearranged itineraries, with restrictions on the maximum size of tour groups and instructions saying travelers must stay with their groups during tours.
The agency said its Web site was outdated and it currently does not offer such services. The information on self-guided tours was later removed from the Web site.
No restrictions have ever been placed on the right of Taiwanese to visit China and the ban only targeted commercial tour groups, Tourism Bureau Deputy Director-General Trust Lin (林信任) said.
Group tours were allegedly being billed as self-guided tours with complimentary services to dodge regulations, he said, adding that such tourism packages could be legal depending on circumstances.
The bureau is monitoring the situation and would impose sanctions on travel agencies that breached the ban, Lin added.
There is nothing odd about travel agencies offering packaged self-guided tours, but the inclusion of complimentary services that resemble group tours could put the service provider at legal risks, High Quality of Travel Association chairman Ringo Lee (李奇嶽) said on Friday.
Anyone traveling in China can join a locally-organized tour group, but they do so at their own peril, as Taiwanese laws and regulations have no jurisdiction over Chinese companies, he said.
Taiwan applies strict liability on travel agencies for insurance claim purposes while in Chinese law liability only concerns negligent acts, he said, adding that Chinese traveler’s insurance policies typically pay less than Taiwan’s.
Although China’s regulations on travelers’ safety are not as extensive as Taiwan’s, it is still average compared with other countries frequented by Taiwanese, Lee said, adding that buying traveler’s insurance is essential in managing risks.
Taiwanese traveling abroad should only use the services of licensed travel agencies and keep a copy of all receipts and contracts, Travel Quality Assurance Association chairman Chang Yung-chen (張永成) said.
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