Taiwan previously proposed to relax the entry quarantine policy in two stages. Yesterday (September 29), the first phase of relaxation was implemented, namely "3+4" (three-day home quarantine + four-day independent epidemic prevention), and the visa-free treatment was fully restored, and the entry nucleic acid test was cancelled.
If the epidemic does not heat up sharply, it is expected to be exempted from home quarantine from October 13, that is, to prevent the epidemic independently for seven days after entering the country, open general social visits and sightseeing in non-visa-free countries and regions, and cancel the travel group restrictions.
has been released but it seems that it has not been released. Although Taiwan has "relaxed", for mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau people, they are still limited to visiting relatives, attending funerals and engaging in business activities. Hong Kong travel agencies are still unable to start tour groups, and Hong Kong people cannot go to sightsee by "free travel".
Some Hong Kong tourism industry believes that civil exchanges should not be linked to politics and are disappointed with the arrangements.
Taiwan is a favorite tourist destination for Hong Kong people. How much Hong Kong tourists have made to Taiwan's tourism industry before the epidemic!
Before the epidemic, flights between Hong Kong and Taipei were one of the most frequent channels in the world. Since Hong Kong people have no share, it is expected that this Christmas holiday, Hong Kong people's first choice for overseas travel will be mainly Thailand, Japan, and South Korea. Taiwan's retail, catering and tourism industry will lose Hong Kong tourists, which is also a big loss.
Not only that, the island's industry players cannot understand what logic the DPP authorities' arrangement is.
Taiwan's "China Daily" article pointed out that the mainland tourists who were open during Ma Ying-jeou's administration brought fresh water to Taiwan's economy, which was in the financial tsunami crisis at that time, and also led to the vigorous development of the tourism industry.
The number of mainland tourists coming to Taiwan in 2015 hit a record of 4.18 million. If the number of tourists coming to Taiwan is together with Hong Kong and Macao, more than half of the tourists coming to Taiwan will be witnessed by the cross-strait dividends brought by the easing of cross-strait relations.
political drama of the DPP authorities?
There are many benefits and joyful exchanges between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. So why did the DPP authorities still cut off this path? The only thing that can be explained by
is the political considerations.
"nine-in-one" election at the end of 3 is approaching, and the DPP authorities are in a row of controversies. The only one who has the chance to turn the tables is probably the only card "anti-China and Taiwan".
And from the perspective of the epidemic, more than 40,000 people in Taiwan are now diagnosed every day, which can be opened to the public. Open your arms to welcome international tourists, but only the mainland, Hong Kong and Macau are kept out.
In short, the Taiwan authorities should understand that relaxing entry measures is to revitalize the tourism industry to save the economy. If they ultimately insist on politicizing the incident and simply and roughly restricting private tourism activities, it will not help the local economy.
can only advise the DPP authorities to do more things that are conducive to cross-strait exchanges rather than political operations. This is really unnecessary.
(Editor Li Wenhui)
This article is a new media article of the Hong Kong Economic Herald.
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