China has yet to show any goodwill in response to Taiwan’s plan to resume cross-strait tourism in one month, Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said yesterday.
The Mainland Affairs Council on Thursday announced that starting on Friday, Chinese tourists living or studying in Hong Kong, Macau and other countries would be allowed to visit Taiwan.
The council also announced that the Tourism Bureau would spend the next 30 days preparing for the resumption of cross-strait tourism, in which 2,000 Chinese traveling with tour groups would be allowed to enter Taiwan each day, and 2,000 Taiwanese joining tour groups being permitted to visit China.
Photo: Chen Hsin-yu, Taipei Times
When cross-strait tourism would resume would depend on Beijing’s response to the new policy, the council said.
Since August 2019, China has banned its people from traveling to Taiwan individually. In 2020, it extended the ban to cover Chinese travel agencies organizing tour groups to Taiwan.
Taiwan currently allows individuals to travel to China, but not tour groups.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office on Friday criticized Taipei for not setting a timeframe for the implementation of the new policy.
“The policy is supposed to ‘resume’ cross-strait tourism and ‘relax’ travel restrictions, but in reality Taiwan refuses to lift the travel ban and has imposed even stricter restrictions on cross-strait tourism,” it said in a statement.
In response to media queries on the sidelines of a conference in Taipei yesterday, Wang said the new policy was announced following multiple rounds of discussion, and shows the government actively responding to public requests.
The one-month preparation period would allow the travel industry to get ready for the reopening of cross-strait tourism, including offering training for tour guides and tour group managers, designing tours in Taiwan and in China, and ensuring that there is adequate accommodation available for Chinese tourists, he said.
“I have not seen China responding positively to our show of goodwill. If both sides think cross-strait tourism should proceed, I look forward to their goodwill response within one month, then we will continue our plan to reopen cross-strait group travel as scheduled,” he said.
In other news, Wang yesterday indirectly confirmed that former Tourism Bureau director-general Chou Yung-hui (周永暉) would helm the Tourism Administration, which is to be officially established on Sept. 15.
The Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) on Aug. 19 ran an exclusive on the proposed appointment.
Asked who would be the first Tourism Administration director-general, Wang said: It is “the person that you all had guessed.”
The Tourism Administration head must be well-versed in tourism affairs and can readily answer questions from lawmakers when the legislative session begins next month, he said.
“Once it is established, the agency would be in charge of meeting this year’s target of attracting 6 million international tourists and 12 million international tourists next year. During his term as Tourism Bureau director-general, the number of international tourists exceeded 10 million and continued to increase,” Wang said.
The ministry would make a final announcement when the appointment is approved by the Executive Yuan, he added.
Chou, a railway expert who is now the chairman of China Engineering Consultants, was the director-general of the Railway Reconstruction Bureau (now the Railway Bureau) and the Taiwan Railways Administration before becoming the head of the Tourism Bureau in 2016.
While Chou was credited for bringing in the Michelin Guide to rate restaurants in Taiwan and establishing the Taiwan Railway Tourism Association, he stepped down in 2020 after the bureau’s secretary-general ordered a bureau worker to pick up his son at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, causing the worker and his son to contract COVID-19.
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