The government would consider adjusting the daily cap on tourists to China after a ban on group travel to the nation is lifted next year if demand exceeds expectations, Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said yesterday.
The ministry earlier this month announced that the ban on group tours to China would be lifted on March 1 and it told Taiwanese travel agencies they could begin organizing tours to China, with the earliest departure to be March 1.
However, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Monday said that the number of Taiwanese tourists to China would be capped at 2,000 per day at the initial stage, the same cap as would apply to Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan.
Photo: CNA
“Travel agencies in Taiwan have already begun selling tours to China leaving in March and afterward, as the Ministry of Transportation and Communications announced that the group travel ban would be lifted. More than 10,000 Taiwanese have paid a deposit or booked flights,” Travel Agent Association spokesperson Ringo Lee (李奇嶽) said in a video on Tuesday.
“However, the MAC insisted that Taiwanese tourists be capped at 2,000 per day,” Lee said. “This has shocked many travel agents, who are utterly confused by the government’s changing policy. Many travel agents could end up having disputes with their customers.”
Ninety percent of Taiwan’s 4,000 travel agencies have organized tours to China, he said.
They are asking how the daily quota would be fairly distributed among travel agencies, he added.
No travel agencies have limited how many spots they offer since the Martial Law period, Lee said.
The government should rethink its policy, he said.
Wang told reporters in New Taipei City that travel agencies need not worry and should proceed with their preparations for tours to China.
“What the MAC was saying was that the policy should be implemented in phases, as there might not be many tourists in the beginning,” Wang said.
“However, an adjustment would be necessary if there is strong demand for tours to China. Details would be announced before the Lunar New Year holiday next year,” he said.
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but