Taiwan Today

The morning of July 4 saw the landing at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport of flight CZ3079, a China Southern Airlines chartered aircraft carrying about 100 passengers from Guangzhou, mainland China. Later that day, five more charter flights carrying passengers from four other mainland Chinese cities landed in Taoyuan and at Songshan Airport in Taipei. These 752 passengers, including tourists, 60 journalists and 31 officials, were led by Shao Qiwei, director of both mainland China's National Tourism Bureau and its Cross-Strait Tourism Association. They were the first batch of mainland Chinese nationals to land in Taiwan via a direct flight in nearly six decades.

During the various groups' stays of between eight and 10 days, their itineraries included Taiwan's major cities, Sun Moon Lake and Alishan in central Taiwan, Taroko National Park on the east coast and some of Taiwan's other famous scenic areas. "I believe [mainland] Chinese tourists can all feel the warmth and hospitality of Taiwanese people," Shao told the media during his stay. "They will take these precious feelings back to [mainland] China, which will attract more tourists to come." Shao says that more than 50 million mainland Chinese residents have expressed an interest in visiting Taiwan and he believes that the cross-strait tourism market has a great deal of potential.

Cross-strait tourism has grown rapidly over the past two decades, but most of the growth has been in the number of Taiwanese visiting mainland China. The ending of martial law in July 1987 stimulated Taiwan's social and political transformation and, as the pressure for social and political change mounted, so did the pressure to review cross-strait relations. While the official Republic of China (ROC) government policy at the time remained the "three nos"--namely no contact, no negotiation and no compromise--a series of adjustments was made to promote cross-strait private exchanges. Many of those who came to Taiwan with the ROC government after the Chinese Civil War decided it was time to urge the government to allow them to visit their family members in the mainland before they passed away.

Early Opening

As ROC government policy prevented official contact with mainland China, in November 1987 the Red Cross Society of the ROC began to accept cross-strait travel applications for private individuals. Taiwan residents made about a half million trips to the mainland in the first year after the opening. At first, Taiwan residents were allowed to visit the mainland only if they had relatives there, and no employees of the ROC government were allowed to make the trip. But as Taiwan residents began to find creative ways to circumvent the rules such as by fabricating stories of mainland relatives, and after the government began gradually removing cross-strait travel restrictions, more and more travelers made the trip to the mainland. In addition to visiting their relatives, many have gone to pursue business opportunities or simply to visit tourist sites. From the 1987 opening through the end of 2007, Taiwan residents made 47 million trips to mainland China.

But while the ROC government allowed people from Taiwan to visit mainland China, it placed strict restrictions on granting visitor's visas to mainland Chinese, limiting them to academics and those in other officially sanctioned professions. According to the ROC's National Immigration Agency, about 320,000 distinguished mainland scholars and professionals visited Taiwan between 1988 and 2007. Another 300,000 approved mainland tourists have been allowed to enter Taiwan since 2002. Whether their trip was for business or for fun, mainland visitors were required to transit through a third territory before arriving in Taiwan.

Taiwan and Heaven

On the other hand, although mainland China started allowing its citizens to travel abroad in the late 1970s, Taiwan was not on the list of potential destinations due to restrictions put in place by both sides. Taiwan and heaven, as many mainland Chinese travel agencies put it at the time, were the only two destinations they could not arrange tours for. Trips abroad by mainland Chinese have continued to grow, however, and last year they made 40 million trips abroad or to mainland China's special administrative regions, with the top destinations including Hong Kong, Macau, Russia, other countries in Asia and the United States.

Since its accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001, mainland China has also been busy signing agreements allowing its citizens to visit other countries. In 2004, Beijing signed such agreements with 12 European Union countries. It also signed a new memorandum with the United States in April this year that allowed mainland Chinese to enter that country for tourism, as visits had previously been limited to those traveling for the purposes of study, family reunions and business. In June the first 240 mainland Chinese visitors allowed to enter as tourists arrived in the United States.

Talks about allowing mainland tourists to enter Taiwan have actually been conducted for a decade or so. The ROC's Executive Yuan approved a project to promote tourism from the mainland in 2002 and the private sector started to invest in building or renovating hotels to capitalize on this potential business opportunity. Nevertheless, the talks remained just that, principally because of the political enmity between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Things started to change earlier this year when President Ma Ying-jeou was elected, the Kuomintang became the ruling party and the two "semi-official" bodies that handle contacts between Taiwan and mainland China--the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) in Taiwan and mainland China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS)--reopened negotiations. In June, the two organizations reached an agreement allowing mainland tour groups to travel directly to Taiwan rather than having to travel via a third country.

Purchasing Power

With mainland China's economy continuing to grow, international tourism operators are increasingly targeting the country's large potential customer base. Newly wealthy mainland Chinese tourists have also demonstrated impressive spending power. For example, according to an AC Nielson survey for the France-based Tax Free World Association, the average amount spent by a mainland Chinese tourist in France is US$3,000--three times the average for visitors from other European countries. And according to US Commerce Department statistics, mainland Chinese visitors spend an average of US$6,000 per person during their stay in the United States, which is the highest amount for any visitor nationality.

While figures for the average amount spent by mainland tourists on their visits to Taiwan since the July 4 opening this year were not available at press time, the visitors from the other side of the strait clearly have the potential to give Taiwan's tourism sector a boost. A 2007 survey by the Tourism Bureau, for example, found that individual mainland visitors spent an average of US$258 per day, second only to the US$287 by South Korean tourists. Visitors from the United States averaged US$188 per day, while those from Europe averaged US$186.

Yao Ta-kuang, chairman of the Travel Agent Association of Taiwan, points out the potential benefits of luring more mainland Chinese visitors. "Last year mainland Chinese made 40 million trips abroad," he says. "If even just 1 million of them come to Taiwan, we could keep the industry going for generations."

As this year's negotiations progressed, both the ROC government and the private sector began to put more and more effort into attracting tourists from across the strait. The Tourism Bureau organized a group consisting of the Consumer Protection Commission, the Department of Health and the Travel Quality Assurance Association to travel to places mainland tourists were likely to visit in Taiwan. Local tourism conditions were evaluated and measures proposed to improve facilities and other aspects of the visitor experience. To avoid misunderstandings, tour guides have taken classes sponsored by the Tourism Bureau to familiarize themselves with the differences between the Mandarin spoken in mainland China and that spoken in Taiwan. Businesses have also started to print travel guides and signs in simplified Chinese characters, which are used in mainland China instead of the traditional characters found in Taiwan.

Scenery and Culture

In mid-June, mainland China sent an exploratory group consisting of employees of 39 travel agencies on an 11-day trip around Taiwan. Han Yan, who is responsible for logistics for Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan at a Shanghai travel agency, wrote in a mainland Chinese newspaper after the trip that in addition to the beautiful scenery and food, she was very impressed by the "perfect and detailed combination of natural scenery and local culture." As an example, she cited a visit to the scenic mountain town of Alishan, where the group was introduced to techniques for planting, picking and processing the famous Alishan tea. "After learning all these details, you get a whole new feeling when you finally take a sip of the tea," she wrote.

Taiwan's SEF and mainland China's ARATS reached a consensus to offer high-quality, in-depth tourism during their June negotiations. The schedule arranged for the exploratory group, however, created concerns about whether in-depth tourism was possible for round-island tours that included so many must-see destinations in the space of just eight to 10 days. Taiwan's tourism industry operators, however, believe that such packages are normal for first visits and point out that they are similar to the European tours Taiwanese visitors embarked on 10 to 15 years ago, when they visited as many as 15 countries in 10 days. "A tight schedule doesn't have to come at the expense of quality," Yao Ta-kuang says. "Besides, you have to let the tourists see a variety of attractions during their first trip so they can get a good overview and whet their appetite to return for in-depth trips."

Top of the Pops

Unique cultural offerings are the main attraction that will lure mainland Chinese tourists into making return trips, local tourism experts say. "In many respects, from ancient artifacts and depth of history to natural wonders and modern architecture, the mainland has the advantage over Taiwan," writes Stanley Yen, chairman of the Landis Taipei Hotel and former head of the ROC Tourism Association, in his book Future Vision, which was published in March. "That's why emphasizing local culture is absolutely the key to boosting Taiwan's international tourism." As one way to do just that, Yen suggests that Taiwan build a museum devoted to pop music. One part of it could be dedicated to the late Teresa Teng (1953-1995), whose songs swept the entire Mandarin-speaking world from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, or other Taiwanese pop singers who are popular in mainland China, he says.

In the June negotiations, the SEF and ARATS agreed on a quota of the equivalent of 3,000 mainland visitors to Taiwan per day, which could bring in as much as NT$60 billion (US$1.87 billion) of business a year, according to estimates offered by Ma Ying-jeou during his presidential campaign. Ma also called for allowing up to 10,000 mainland tourists per day to enter Taiwan within four years. However, according to the National Immigration Agency, only about 20,000--or the equivalent of 240 per day--mainland tourists visited Taiwan via direct transportation links in July, August and September. Direct sea transportation has also been facilitated for travelers from mainland China. The first batch of 230 mainland Chinese tourists from Xiamen and Quanzhou came ashore in Kinmen on September 30. Representatives of Taiwan's tourism industry attributed the low numbers to the earthquake in mainland China's Sichuan province in May and to the Beijing Olympics in August, saying the events reduced interest in overseas travel.

The number of inbound mainland Chinese tourists did increase during the mainland's long National Day holiday in October. According to mainland China's Taiwan Affairs Office, approximately 4,000 mainland visitors--the equivalent of around 500 per day--visited Taiwan during the holiday.

Red Tape

George Chen, convener of the National Policy Foundation's Sustainable Development Division, believes that one of the issues that needs to be dealt with is mainland China's lengthy application process for tourists who want to travel to Taiwan. Currently, the mainland has opened applications only to people from 13 relatively cosmopolitan provinces or municipalities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong. Applicants must not only have regular employment, but also need to prove they have the equivalent of at least NT$200,000 (US$6,170) in the bank. It takes about three weeks for an application to be processed by the mainland's local, central and cross-strait affairs agencies.

Chen believes other restrictions need to be removed. Right now, mainland Chinese can only visit Taiwan in tour groups, meaning that they must enter and leave Taiwan as a group and participate in all activities in Taiwan as a group. During their stay, mainland Chinese tourists are also barred from visiting certain ROC government-designated "sensitive" sites such as national research laboratories or installations operated by the biotech industry. As a result, a survey conducted by a Beijing newspaper in February this year showed that half of the 2,000 people surveyed thought there are too many restrictions and that the "planned" group schedule kills much of the fun. George Chen believes that this is why Hong Kong and Macau--where visitors from the rest of mainland China may travel as individuals--are still the most popular destinations for mainland Chinese tourists.

To be fair, not all tourism surveys have shown discouraging results. A survey conducted in early July by the Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing showed that about two thirds of the 1,000 people surveyed expressed a desire to visit Taiwan, with one sixth saying they would like to go right away and another sixth preferring to visit in 2009.

In October, Janice Lai, director-general of the Tourism Bureau and chairwoman of the nonprofit Taiwan Tourism Association, led a delegation composed of executives from more than 100 Taiwanese travel agencies to Beijing and Nanjing, where they met national and local mainland Chinese tourism authorities to discuss problems faced by the industry on both sides of the strait. Issues discussed included flight destinations, seats, pricing, tour quality and simplifying application procedures. At workshops during the meeting, representatives of mainland Chinese travel agencies also voiced their hope of removing restrictions to boost the number of mainland Chinese tourists bound for Taiwan.

However, if travel fees are taken into consideration, it seems that Taiwan is not exactly competitive. To avoid price wars between travel agencies, the Tourism Bureau set the strict requirement that tour operators could not charge less than US$80 per visitor per day. Before the opening of direct charter flights, the average daily fee for a mainland Chinese tourist to visit Taiwan after traveling through a third country, according to Chen, was approximately US$30. However, the quality of these budget tours was compromised to the point that a popular saying arose on the mainland: You might have a lifetime of regret if you did not visit Taiwan, but you would regret it for the rest of your life if you actually did visit.

Higher Quality, Cost

The quest to assure higher quality tourism has inevitably had the effect of assuring higher costs for tourists. As of October, round-trip plane tickets from mainland China to Taiwan cost about NT$20,000 (US$625) and the average fee for a package tour was approximately NT$50,000 (US$1,600). "For a mainland tourist, this is 2.5 times higher than the cost for an eight-day trip to other destinations in Asia, 1.25 times that of an eight-day trip to Egypt and 11 times that of a Hong Kong trip," Chen says. "The current fee for a Taiwan trip is not competitive." And he is well aware that Taiwan faces increasingly stiff international competition in its efforts to lure more mainland tourists. "Mainland China allows tourism to 134 countries or areas, and mainland tourists have already visited 91 of them," he says. "There are simply too many alternatives."

Meanwhile, the higher fees have not translated into higher profits for travel agencies. Taiwan has roughly 2,800 travel agencies, of which 172 are approved by the Tourism Bureau to handle mainland tour groups. And with an average of just some 200 mainland tourists coming to Taiwan each day, individual travel agencies are not seeing much of a bump in business.

Taiwan's quest to attract mainland Chinese tourists, of course, is not all about making money. By opening its doors, Taiwan also hopes to increase the level of understanding between the two sides of the strait. The early groups of mainland tourists, as they race from one destination to the next, are not likely to develop a very deep understanding of Taiwan. But if restrictions continue to be removed and tourists from the other side of the Taiwan Strait gain the leisure to explore Taiwan's side streets and back alleys on their own, they will surely discover the warmth of the island's people and the depths of its culture.

Write to Jim Hwang at jim@mail.gio.gov.tw