Chilling! The Taiwan authorities’ “ban on group travel” to mainland China has left businesses on the island “unable to even eat New Year’s Eve dinner”

　　China News Service, February 9 (Xinhua) According to Taiwanese media reports, Taiwan's transportation authority, the Tourism Administration, suddenly announced on the 7th that the planned group travel for Taiwanese people to the mainland after the Spring Festival will no longer be carried out. Travel agencies will stop soliciting tour groups to the mainland from now on. For business purposes, group tours to the mainland will no longer be allowed after June 1. This "New Year's gift package" caught the island's tourism industry off guard and aroused the anger of public opinion on the island. It pointed out that the DPP authorities were taking advantage of people's rights and treating Taiwan's tourism industry and tourists as "hostages" to threaten the mainland. Lai Qingde's "election" "One thing before, choose another thing after", which even chilled the hearts of the island's industry players.

Taiwan tourism industry operators: Policies change rapidly and deceive the people, or take to the streets to protest

　　"Very sad and angry" "I can't even eat the New Year's Eve dinner"... Representatives of Taiwan's tourism industry held a press conference in Taipei on the 8th to express their anger and protest against the Democratic Progressive Party authorities. Wu Yanhui, vice chairman of the Taiwan Travel Agents Association, said the predictable travel disputes have caused public outrage. He pointed out that the announcement of the "ban on group tours" by the authorities has caused a panic among the island's businesses. April to June is the peak season for mainland tourism, especially in June when 70% to 80% of tourists have been received. How can these disputes be resolved? He said that if there is a lack of reasonable explanation, he would not rule out taking to the streets to protest on May 20, the day when Taiwan's newly elected leader Lai Ching-te takes office this year.

  The tour leader of a travel agency in Taiwan and his group members lined up to check in at Taoyuan Airport. Image source: Taiwan’s “China Times News Network”

　　Chen Yixuan, chairman of the Taipei Tourism Association, said that of the nearly 4,000 tourism operators in Taiwan, nearly 90% are engaged in business with the mainland. Many operators specialize in the mainland market and originally planned to expand their business after the holiday. How many people will lose their jobs after the Chinese New Year? She bluntly said that the authorities' policies, which are constantly changing, are simply deceiving the people.

　　Li Qiyue, chairman of the Taiwan Chinese Quality Tourism Development Association, emphasized that the main business of many travel agencies in central and southern China is to accept mainland groups, and Taiwanese consumers also want to go to the mainland. The sudden change in policy is to cheat votes and tie consumers and business operators to politics. Due to the ideological battle, everyone has lost confidence in the Democratic Progressive Party. More groups that have been accepted may become "underground groups", and risks such as insurance disputes will increase. Lai Qingde wants to further express his position on how to deal with it.

　　The Taiwan-China Cross-Strait Travel Association issued a statement on the 8th saying that in the face of cross-strait difficulties, the island's rulers should handle them in a smart way and cannot make decisions that sacrifice the rights and interests of the people on the island. Otherwise, the regrets and dissatisfaction caused by the harm will be difficult to make up for the trust and scars that the industry has in those in power.

The DPP's "one thing before the election and another after the election" was criticized for cheating votes, which chilled the industry.

　　Kuomintang "legislator" Wang Hongwei said that the DPP authorities promised to lift the "ban on youth groups" in March before the election, but broke their promise less than a month after the election. Lai Qingde set a record for "the fastest election check bounce".

　　Lai Cheng-yi, chairman of the Taiwan Chamber of Commerce, said that the Democratic Progressive Party authorities should abide by their pre-election promise and allow Taiwanese group tourists to travel to the mainland in March. At the end of last year, various travel agencies had already started publicity to attract group tourists, and they were about to do so. Everyone was still happy to say that group tours to the mainland were doing well, but they didn’t expect that an administrative order would ruin the dream of the travel industry. He pointed out that before the election, the DPP said it would increase cross-strait exchanges. Both Tsai Ing-wen and Lai Ching-te said so. However, the "New Year's gift package" given to travel agency operators after the election actually asked travel agencies to stop soliciting group tourists to the mainland. This is tantamount to opening up under false pretenses. In the name of defrauding votes.

  Lai Ching-te (left) and Tsai Ing-wen. Image source: Taiwan’s “China Times News Network”

　　"Is Tsai Ing-wen unwilling to be left alone and want to offend the public? Can she break her trust and ruthlessly steal people's jobs?" Huang Zhixian, a senior Taiwanese media person, said that last year, the island's tourism industry held a meeting of 7,000 people to demand the opening up of cross-strait tourism. The next day, the head of Taiwan’s transportation department, Wang Guocai, immediately announced the opening to the industry. She also questioned that during the election, the DPP authorities announced that groups from Taiwan and Mainland China would be open to tourists from March 1, but now they have gone back on their word and broken their trust with the people. "Is this considered vote fraud?"

　　Taiwan's "China Times News Network" commented that the authorities caught the industry off guard, triggering a strong rebound in the tourism industry, and threatened to "launch a protest" after the year. For Tsai Ing-wen, who has entered the "caretaker" stage, this move is like laying a landmine for the next leader of Taiwan, which is very unkind; for Lai Qingde, a "powerful" move before taking over will lay a solid foundation for the future. The cross-strait relations have started with an unfriendly approach, "Choose one thing before and another thing after", which has further chilled the hearts of industry players on the island.

"Anti-China" measures will not hurt the mainland, but they may become the killer of "poor Taiwan"

　　"Due to the huge disparity in size between the two sides, the DPP authorities' 'ban on group tours' actually punishes Taiwanese tourism industry operators and Taiwanese people." Li Qingguo, a senior Taiwanese media person, said that Taiwan has about 2 million group tourists visiting the mainland every year. The number of tourists accounted for only 1.54% of the 130 million foreign tourists from mainland China, which had a very small impact on the mainland tourism market. However, the DPP authorities abandoned the original plan to lift the "ban on group tours" in mainland China from March 1 and suddenly announced a ban on travel agencies. To attract tourist groups to the mainland, and starting from June before the peak tourist season, more than 4,000 travel operators in Taiwan operating in the mainland market have suffered heavy losses.

　　Li Qingguo pointed out that various "anti-China" measures cannot harm the mainland, but they may become the killer of "poor Taiwan". The DPP authorities have broken their promises, have no integrity at all, and taken advantage of the rights and interests of their own people, which is both cowardly and incompetent. "Lai Ching-te has been so tough even before he came to power. The people must resist strongly, otherwise Lai (the authorities) will only become more aggressive in the future."

  Taiwan Taoyuan Airport. Image source: Taiwan China News Network

　　Lai Zhengyi said that when cross-strait tourism exchanges were at their most prosperous, they brought huge business opportunities to Taiwan. After the epidemic, all parts of the world are pushing for the recovery of the tourism industry, but Taiwan is the only one to engage in ideological activities and ignore the island's tourism industry and the rights and interests of the people. He said that mainland tourists cannot come to Taiwan, and hundreds of thousands of families related to the tourism industry are already suffering. Now that group tourists are prohibited from going to the mainland, it is simply adding insult to injury.

　　"This is using Taiwan's tourism industry and tourists as 'hostages' to hold the mainland hostage." Huang Zhixian pointed out, "If exchanges and tourism are used as a tool for 'Taiwan independence', there will definitely be a price to pay."

　　In response to this matter, Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, recently stated that Taiwanese people have been looking forward to organizing group tours to the mainland for a long time, and the tourism industry on the island has also been calling on the Democratic Progressive Party authorities to lift the ban as soon as possible. Since August last year, relevant parties in Taiwan have claimed several times that they have made plans to resume group tours organized by Taiwan travel agencies to the mainland, but at the same time they have attached conditions, which is always based on political calculations. Today (7th) Taiwan's tourism authorities announced that the original plan will no longer be implemented. This is not the first time that it has gone back on its word.

　　Zhu Fenglian pointed out that this will only make the Taiwanese people and the tourism industry once again dissatisfied with the DPP authorities' political manipulation of tourism, hindering exchanges between compatriots on both sides of the strait, and harming the well-being of compatriots on both sides of the strait.