TAIWANESE travellers can now visit China without having to apply for visa after China lifted the requirement yesterday.
However Taiwanese visitors will still, as before, need a valid Mainland Travel Permit to enter China.
Taiwan-based Lion Travel handles an average of about 15,000 Taiwanese tourists to China every month and vice general manager, Andy Yu, said China remains the top outbound destination for his clients.
“Travel to China is dominated by group travel and the new measure may spur us to launch more FIT packages targeting the younger generation, who now prefer to go to South-east Asia and Japan. China is not popular among them yet,” he commented.
Yu predicts 10 per cent growth in Taiwanese outbound traffic to China in the next few months as a result.
Similarly, Shanghai-based Hongkong Four Seas Travel -TSI, general manager for Greater China (business travel), Jonathan Kao, said: “Although there are already high entry numbers from Taiwan to China at the moment, one report said approximately two-thirds of Taiwanese have never been to China.”
However, Cheng-An Travel Service, general manager, Rola Wu, disagreed about the usefulness of China’s new entry requirements. “The policy doesn’t mean much to the Taiwanese as the visa was easy to get.”
But Wu said: “It may be a good policy for business travellers but it won’t make much difference otherwise; it’s like an increase in convenience from 90 to 95 per cent.”
“We expect a continuing stable travel pattern after July 1. In the same manner, neither travel agency nor DMC will benefit much from the change.”
