The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday welcomed an announcement by Chinese authorities on their plan to resume group travel to Taiwan for residents of Shanghai and its Fujian Province.
“The [Taiwanese] government welcomes Chinese tourists to visit Taiwan,” the MAC said in a statement.
“However, the specifics of implementation are still pending the Chinese authorities’ announcement of specific measures,” the council said.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
The MAC also urged Chinese authorities to open communications on issues related to tourism safety, quality control and stability with Taiwan through the Taiwan Strait Tourism Association (TSTA) and the Association For Tourism Exchange Across The Taiwan Straits (ATETS).
“This will help ensure the smooth resumption of tourism exchanges in the future,” the council said.
The TSTA and ATETS were established by Taipei and Beijing respectively to facilitate coordination and negotiations between the two sides on tourism.
The MAC’s statement came in response to an announcement made by China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism early yesterday, in which it said China’s government would “soon resume group travel to Taiwan for residents of Fujian Province and Shanghai.”
The purpose of the resumption is to “further promote the normalization of interactions between individuals across the Taiwan Strait and the regularization of [cross-strait] exchanges in various fields,” the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism said.
It was also aimed at responding to the “strong expectations” of grassroots communities and the tourism industry in Taiwan, it said.
The Chinese ministry said it hopes the tourism sectors on both sides would strengthen communication and coordination to provide high-quality services and products for Chinese residents visiting Taiwan as part of group tours, it added without elaborating about what communication it foresaw.
China only allows Fujian residents to visit Kinmen and Lienchiang counties, but not other cities or counties in Taiwan proper.
Taipei last year raised its travel warning for China to “orange,” advising Taiwanese against nonessential trips, following a threat for Beijing to execute “diehard” Taiwan independence supporters.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office yesterday said that Taipei should cancel the travel warning and fully resume all direct travel links across the Taiwan Strait.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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