New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, on Thursday said that if elected, he would increase the number of Chinese visitors to Taiwan and resume direct flights to 60 Chinese cities.
Taiwan currently allows flights to 10 Chinese cities, in addition to 13 Chinese cities that accept cross-strait charter flights, according to the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC).
Hou told a news conference in New Taipei City that his proposal would boost Taiwan’s tourism industry, whose average growth has dropped from 15 percent during the previous KMT administration to 3 percent under President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) leadership.
Photo: CNA
If elected, Hou promised to raise the government’s tourism budget by 15 to 20 percent annually, as well as increase investment in infrastructure, including airports, ports, high-speed rail and traditional rail services.
Setting a target of attracting 18 million tourists per year in the first four years of his term, Hou said his administration would enhance tourism activities, such as medical tourism, cruises, food, art, culture, religion, exhibitions, sports, marine and outdoor activities to boost economic benefits from tourism.
Due to strained cross-strait relations and zero communication, the Tsai administration’s touted influx of 1 million Chinese tourists, made earlier this year, would be impossible to achieve, Hou said.
The current situation not only deters Chinese tourists from visiting, but has also eroded mutual trust, he said, adding that a resumption of cross-strait dialogue and communication would attract Chinese tourists back to Taiwan and stimulate the economy.
Since Tsai assumed office in May 2016, Taiwan has seen a decline in Chinese tourist arrivals, as Beijing gradually tightened control and management of tourism to Taiwan, a move widely interpreted as retaliation for Tsai’s refusal to endorse the so-called “1992 consensus.”
Starting on Aug. 1, 2019, Beijing prohibited Chinese tourists from traveling independently to Taiwan, citing “current cross-strait relations.”
At the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in January 2020, it also banned group travel to Taiwan.
In contrast, Taiwan permits individuals to travel to China for leisure or study, although the restriction on travel agencies organizing group trips to China remains in place as part of the country’s COVID-19 control measures.
However, from Friday next week, Taiwan is to reopen its borders to Chinese tourists who either reside or study in a third country.
The ban on group travel to China is likely to be lifted following a one-month preparatory period, the MAC said on Thursday.
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