Taiwan fights to save its tourism industry amid battering by coronavirus and Beijing

Taiwan’s government has pledged emergency relief measures for its flagging tourism sector as part of its NT$1.05 trillion (US$35 billion) aid package for workers and businesses bearing the economic brunt of the coronavirus pandemic. The tourism industry is expected to receive about NT$30 billion to help bail out its businesses, which were among the first to be affected by the outbreak. Transport minister Lin Chia-lung appealed for calm on Thursday, saying his ministry – which covers tourism – would do all it could to help alleviate the sector’s plight. The ministry said it would prepare a special budget of subsidies and soft loans for tourism operators, hotels, tour bus companies and other tourist services. “Some 300,000 employees of the tourism sector, including tour leaders, travel guides, hotel and tourist park employees, as well as transport workers such as tour bus and cab drivers, will be covered by this plan,” Lin said at a press conference. Taiwan’s central bank last month cut its full-year economic growth outlook to 1.92 per cent, from its 2.57 per cent forecast in December. Local tourism, which had already suffered losses because of mainland China’s ban on tour group visits to the island since August, has remained in financial strife after Taiwan in February suspended all organised tours to and from the mainland as well as individual visits by mainlanders, because of the pandemic. As the outbreak spread through Europe and the United States in March, the island’s authorities asked local travel companies to stop organising trips to all countries seriously affected, before calling a halt to all tour operations overseas – a ban that the Taiwan Tourism Bureau this week extended until the end of May. “I have been taking unpaid leave since March after my company failed to secure any tour orders,” travel agent Wang Ting-hai said. Wang said his company used to focus on organising tours to and from the mainland, but had to shift its focus to Japan and Europe after Beijing suspended tour group visits. Beijing considers Taiwan a wayward province that must be returned to the mainland fold, by force if necessary. It has suspended official exchanges with Taiwan since Tsai Ing-wen was elected the self-ruled island’s president in 2016 and refused to accept the one-China principle, which Beijing sees as a prerequisite to the two sides conducting official interactions. China ‘will continue to oppose Taiwan independence’ after Tsai victory It issued the ban in August in an attempt to force Tsai’s government to accept the one-China principle and discourage the Taiwanese public from electing her for a second term, Taiwanese media and pundits believed. Tsai was re-elected in January’s presidential poll. “Because of the Chinese ban, we had to cancel a number of organised tours planned well ahead of the ban,” Wang said, adding that the coronavirus had made life even more difficult with dozens of travel agencies forced to cancel tours and refund clients because of the outbreak. “With the government extending the ban on operating any tours to any overseas territories until the end of May, I am afraid my company might be forced to shut down due to growing losses,” he said. According to the Taipei-based Travel Quality Assurance Association, at least 500 travel agencies will have close down by June, and 3,500 agencies would suffer that fate by the end of the year, if the outbreak continues. Wang said that under the transport ministry’s plan he will be entitled to receive a monthly subsidy of NT$10,000 (US$332) for three months, in addition to the NT$18,960 subsidy given to each tourism worker in the past month. Taxi drivers, whose business has declined sharply due to the pandemic, are also entitled to receive monthly NT$10,000 subsidies for three months, according to Lin. Could the coronavirus drag Beijing and Taipei towards conflict? According to the island’s cabinet, the NT$1.05 trillion aid package will be provided in two phases. The first phase, in place since last month, included NT$100 billion that has been allocated by the government to help fund affected industries, and nearly NT$350 billion in soft loans for them. A special budget of NT$150 billion is expected to be added to the second phase of the relief package, while the government-owned banks and financial institutions will extend up to NT$700 billion for businesses in need of financing. Other relief aid covered in the second phase includes NT$150 billion for local workers. Under the plan, the government will pay subsidies to 1.92 million employees, who will receive 40 per cent of their regular salary for three months, according to Minister Without Portfolio Kung Ming-hsin. Affected local businesses will also be given a 30 per cent discount on public utility rates, Kung said. A hotline for the public to contact the government agencies handling the aid has received more than 4,000 calls per day since it was set up in late March, the economics ministry has said. As of Friday, Taiwan had reported 382 cases of Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and six deaths. The island has won praise for its early and so far apparently effective measures to control the spread of the disease. Sign up now and get a 10% discount (original price US$400) off the China AI Report 2020 by SCMP Research. Learn about the AI ambitions of Alibaba, Baidu & JD.com through our in-depth case studies, and explore new applications of AI across industries. 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Taiwan fights to save its tourism industry amid battering by coronavirus and Beijing

Self-ruled island seems to have contained its outbreak, but its ban on overseas tours followed Beijing halting mainland Chinese groups going there Second phase of aid package will include bailouts for travel agents and workers, ministry announces

Self-ruled island seems to have contained its outbreak, but its ban on overseas tours followed Beijing halting mainland Chinese groups going there

Second phase of aid package will include bailouts for travel agents and workers, ministry announces