THE infamous Qiandao Lake boating tragedy in Zhejiang province has dealt a severe blow to the tourist business with many Taiwan tour groups cancelling trips to the province, Fujian government officials confirmed yesterday. Taiwan's travel agents last week imposed a ban on their mainland tours after 24 Taiwan tourists who joined a sightseeing tour organised by the Fujian CYTS Tours Corp were burnt to death on March 31 in a leisure boat at Qiandao Lake, Zhejiang. Luo Jian, vice-director of Fujian Provincial Tourism Bureau, said yesterday the ban had already affected Fujian's travel business. He said more than 100 tours organised by Taiwan agents this month had been cancelled and he believed the boycott would cast a shadow over the annual Goddess of Mazhu festival in Meizhou next month. Hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese travel to Fujian every year for the event. Fujian attracted more than 340,000 Taiwanese tourists last year, a third of the province's foreign tourists. ''This [tragedy] is bad for the development of the tourist industry. I hope that the tour businesses in Taiwan and China can do their best to prevent incidents like this affecting the normal exchanges of our business,'' said Mr Luo. ''But, as you can understand, the tour businesses in Fujian is also a victim of this tragedy,'' he said. According to Lin Yongsheng, deputy general manager of Fujian CYTS Tours Corp, the victims' families would soon be contacted about compensation. Each family should receive about 120,000 yuan (HK$106,560) compensation but details are still being worked out by the insurance company. Both men denied the Fujian CYTS made a mistake that led to the death of the tourists. They stressed the company had not broken any regulations and had done its best to assist the victims' families. Despite Taiwan's boycott, Mr Lin was hopeful business would eventually recover. He said he was optimistic because even in 1989 when China's tour business plummeted after the Tiananmen Square massacre, business suffered for only two to three months. Mr Lin said the Fujian CYTS first learned of the tragedy on April 1 when its sub-agent in Zhejiang informed it the 24 Taiwanese tourists had ''not arrived as scheduled and were missing''. The company had already started contacting Taiwan when Zhejiang authorities asked them for the ''blood samples'' of the tourists later that night. On April 2, the company sent a member of staff to Zhejiang and two senior managers went the next day, Mr Lin said. Taiwan has severely criticised China over its handling of the tragedy, saying the Chinese Government had imposed a news blackout and refused to allow its representatives to assist the victims' families.