Mainland Chinese Tourists Still Not Allowed to Visit Taiwan：Tourism Industry Struggling, but Tsai Administration Won't Relent
By Tsai Hui-ping
United Daily News, August 12, 2023
On August 10, mainland China announced that mainland Chinese can travel in groups to an additional 78 countries and regions. With two previous announcements, the total destinations reached 138 countries and regions, but Taiwan, which is closest to the mainland, is not on the list. No timetable is set for the opening up of cross-strait tourism and Taiwan’s tourism industry is getting impatient and angry. On August 11, the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen again emphasized that under the principle of equality, Taiwan is willing to restore cross-strait tourism with the other side simultaneously. The Tsai administration further said that it will first allow mainland Chinese residing outside the mainland to visit Taiwan. While the tourism industry and people are barely surviving, the Tsai administration only considers saving its face.
Absence of Mainland Chinese Tourists Impacting Businesses
Before assuming his post earlier this year, Minister of the Interior Lin Yu-chang wrote in a Facebook post that during the pandemic, Taiwan’s macro-economy performed brilliantly, but the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and micro enterprises suffered a lot, causing a widening of the gap between the rich and the poor and the increase of a sense of relative deprivation. These are the most important political, economic, and social factors why the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had lost the local elections at the end of last year. The SMEs referred to by Minister Lin are the most affected because of the absence of mainland Chinese tourists.
In the past, because of the opening up to mainland Chinese tourists, Taiwan’s tourism created shining records for many years. Year after year, Taiwan saw more than 10 million foreign tourists each year, and the inflow of mainland tourists was incessant like water flowing from the faucet. In 2019, the year before the pandemic, the total number of tourists from abroad was 11,860,000 persons, among them 271,000 were Chinese tourists, and their spending also accounted for nearly 27 percent, bringing in a large amount of foreign exchange.
The large number of mainland Chinese tourists also created some negative consequences, one of the most serious ones was the “integrated service.” Mainland Chinese or Hong Kong businesses controlled the tourism businesses from tour buses to hotels, and to shopping markets, so most of the earnings went abroad. But the tourist chain is huge, despite the “integrated service,” mainland tourists also spent freely, and many local businesses still benefited, let alone the individual Chinese tourists outside the “integrated service” who spent even more money.
When the pandemic broke out in early 2020, the Tsai administration closed the door to mainland Chinese tourists and banned Taiwan’s tour groups to mainland China; the mainland also adopted an elimination policy and sealed off its borders, so cross-strait interactions have stopped for more than three years. After the pandemic eased, many countries including Taiwan have opened up their borders, but Taiwan still bans mainland Chinese tourists.
Mainland China lifted its border control on January 8 this year and allowed its citizens to travel abroad. On February 6, the mainland allowed its citizens to travel to 20 destinations as groups and added 40 more destinations a month later.
Countries Vying Chinese Tourists Using Different Strategies
Many Southeast Asian countries neighboring China have welcomed the lifting of the travel ban by China. On January 9, Thailand’s deputy prime minister went to the airport to greet the first group of Chinese tourists after 3 years. With the further opening up of 78 destinations, many countries are prepared to earn money from Chinese tourists. Duty-free shops and cosmetics stores in South Korea are readying products and sales activities targeted at Chinese tourists. Duty-free shops in Incheon Airport and Gimpo Airport will have special sales promotions of quality products aimed at Chinese tourists. LG Household and Healthcare Company will display Chinese language pamphlets in their stores and will have Chinese-speaking salespersons.
Australia, whose relations with mainland China have been tense in the past few years, is also welcoming Chinese tourists. Thailand, on the other hand, announced that it will shorten the visa processing time from 14 working days to seven working days to facilitate Chinese tourists.
When many countries are offering incentives to attract Chinese tourists, Taiwan acts alone. In May this year, when mainland China allowed its travel agencies to receive tourist groups from Taiwan, Taiwan’s travel agencies were hoping that the Tsai administration would lift the ban on tourist groups from the mainland, but the Tsai administration insists that the opening up must be “bilateral and simultaneous,” it also demands that mainland China allow their tourist groups to go to Taiwan, and the opening up must be negotiated by semi-official organizations of both sides. Because of the insistence on the “bilateral and simultaneous” requirement, it leads to the question of “the chicken or the egg.” The tourist industry is stuck and many counties and cities which rely on tourism have lost their hope.
Insisting on “Bilaterality” and “Simultaneity,” Tsai Administration Deliberately Unfriendly
Such a situation raises the question of if it’s Taiwan that needs mainland Chinese tourists to invigorate the economy or the Chinese tourists who need Taiwan’s opening up more. As the whole world is seeking Chinese tourists, even if Taiwan does not open up, Chinese tourists have many other options. If the Tsai administration wishes to show good faith by first allowing Taiwan’s tourist groups to travel to China, then the ball will be in China’s court. Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kuo-tsai said that if Taiwan unilaterally opens up tourist groups to China, and China does not reciprocate, then it will be unfair to Taiwan’s hotel and food businesses and the inbound travel agencies. The problem is the travel agencies are barely surviving, they do not care about the time sequence of who opens up first, it’s only the Tsai administration that has psychological barriers.
Although people on Taiwan cannot travel to mainland China as groups, according to statistics by the Tourism Bureau, from January to June this year, the number one destination of Taiwan’s outbound travel is Japan, and number two is mainland China. Because of the proximity of geography, similar culture across the Taiwan Strait, and the interdependency of economics and trade, bilateral exchanges are intensive and cannot be obstructed by politics.
Feeling the pressure from the travel businesses, Premier Chen Chien-jen said yesterday that to welcome mainland Chinese tourists to experience Taiwan, the government will allow mainland Chinese who reside outside the mainland to travel to Taiwan first. This measure appears to be beneficial, but the mainland Chinese who own foreign passports or hold dual citizenship are already allowed to enter Taiwan, and their numbers are limited, so this measure is not helpful. The tourism businesses think it is merely a word game and cannot accept it.