Taiwan to tackle resentment caused by influx of mainland tourists
Taiwan is working out a plan to prevent the flood of tourists from across the Strait causing the kind of resentment felt by Hongkongers
Taiwan's government says it will formulate comprehensive measures to ensure that the increasing number of mainland visitors does not become a source of public grievance - as it has in Hong Kong.
With the mainland now replacing Japan as the biggest source of visitors to Taiwan, the Mainland Affairs Council, the island's top mainland policy planning body, said it had worked with relevant agencies to draft measures to address the issue.
"A set of comprehensive measures is necessary to avoid problems like those in Hong Kong," council spokeswoman Wu Mei-hung said yesterday.
Taiwan will soon increase its quota for mainland tourists travelling in groups to 5,000 from 4,000 a day, while the quota for individual tourists will double to 2,000 a day. Mainland tourists made some 2.6 million trips to Taiwan last year, up 45 per cent from 2011, says the Taipei-based Taiwan Strait Tourism Association.
While they have stimulated the development of hotels, tour bus companies, restaurants, shops and night markets, they have also started creating problems similar to those experienced in Hong Kong.
"Give me back the National Palace Museum," said Taipei resident Yang Wen-chung, angry about the huge number of mainland tourists swarming all over the attraction - a must-see for mainland visitors.