tourism

The Tourism Administration says Beijing is ignoring repeated calls for
dialogue on issues related to cross-strait tourism.

According to the administration, the Taiwan Strait Tourism Association has
reached out to the Association for Tourism Exchange Across the Taiwan Straits
to discuss such cooperation on numerous occasions beginning in February of
this year, but China has not replied.

The Tourism Administration says it has been seeking to normalize travel
exchanges between the two sides through dialogue between the tourism
associations following the COVID pandemic.

The statement comes after the China Times reported that Taiwanese had made
more 4.2-million trips to China as of October this year and Beijing estimates
the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million for the
whole year.

The newspaper said only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan this
year and those figures equate to gap of nearly 3.8 million cross-strait trips
and a tourism deficit of about 152-billion N-T.

The report also said that local travel agencies are hoped for a breakthrough
regarding cross-strait tourism during the Taipei-Shanghai Twin-Cities Forum
in Shanghai, which is scheduled to take place on Friday and Saturday next
week.

Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an leading the delegation to Shanghai for the summit.