Recently, a news that Thailand was originally expected to charge Taiwanese tourists with additional sightseeing visa fees and work fees, which made the people on the island furious. It turns out that Thailand plans to set up a visa center in Taipei and Kaohsiung from October 1, and a processing fee of NT$470 will be charged for a group visa; the personal visa fee will not increase, but the daily limit is 100 people. As soon as the news of
came out, it immediately attracted a lot of criticism from the media on the island. Although Thailand finally decided to postpone the implementation under pressure, it still made the island very angry.
It turns out that Taiwan has already opened "visa-free" to Thailand, and it was only extended in August this year. However, Thailand's visa price will increase from October 1st. Not only will it not be visa-free, it has become the most expensive country with Southeast Asia visas, which is simply a slap in the face of the "new southward" policy.
is incredible. The Taiwan authorities have no voice on this matter. Even "Governmental Affairs Commissioner" Zhang Jingsen immediately jumped out and said:
Thailand's increase in visa fees is not conducive to Thailand's tourism. On the other hand, the increase in tourists from Thailand will be beneficial to Taiwan, which is beneficial to Taiwan, and even a net increase in Taiwan's tourism revenue will increase by NT$10 billion.
Zhang Jingsen
Foreign Affairs Department Head Wu Zhaoxie also emphasized:
Since the implementation of Thailand visa-free , tourists from Southeast Asia to Taiwan grew by 30% last year, and the number of tourists from Thailand to Taiwan has increased by nearly 50%.
Wu Zhaoxie
The two sang together, and they looked anxious to defend Thailand, which made people speechless.
Some Taiwanese media couldn't stand it and said bluntly, "This is the hot face against the cold butt" and "spit yourself."
In fact, in order to reduce the dependence on cross-strait trade, the Tsai administration has promoted the "new southward direction" with the "power of prehistoric times". Recently, she also expressed complacently that between
and 2016 and 2017, the total trade volume between Taiwan and the "new southbound" countries has increased by about 16%, from US$96 billion to US$111 billion.
However, behind these seemingly beautiful achievements, there is actually another side that the Taiwan authorities do not want to say.
Taiwan's exports to mainland China and Hong Kong and Macao in the first half of this year accounted for 41% of the total export volume, the highest in the past eight years. That is, Tsai Ing-wen continues to pour cold water on the mainland market, but Taiwan's dependence on the mainland's exports has not decreased but increased. In contrast, the proportion of exports in the ASEAN market, which the Taiwan authorities have high expectations, has dropped from 18.5% in 2016 to 17.7% in the first half of this year. More than two years of investment is equivalent to doing nothing.
Tsai Ing-wen claims that Taiwan’s current economy is in the "best state in twenty years." Half of this "best state" depends on export growth contribution. In the first half of this year, Taiwan's exports to the mainland and Hong Kong and Macao hit a record high.
At the same time, Taiwan's exports to new southbound countries, including Vietnam , Malaysia , Philippines and Indonesia were all lower than the average, and exports to Thailand and Singapore were even more recession. Tsai Ing-wen’s so-called “best state” of the economy depends on the mainland, not the new southbound countries.
's "New Southward" results can only be slapdated, and the island's economy is also in danger of collapse recently. The tourism industry in Xitou, Nantou, collapsed, and even couldn't play with hotels and B&Bs, and some guild halls even closed directly; while the sales of Lugang Monster Village, which is famous for its cultural and creative products, also dropped by 20%; Tainan Anping Castle has an average turnover of 30% to 40%, and the tourism industry is even more depressed than before. Why is
so dismal? It turns out that the main force of the island's tourism market - the retirement group "Silver Tribe" will no longer play. Why are they not traveling? It turned out that the pension reform was cut, with a maximum of 60% off. If the money was less, I naturally had to tighten my belt, "not having dinner, not giving gifts, not buying a house, not taking a remote taxi, not traveling, not singing karaoke... because everything became unright."
Taiwan media statistics show that there are currently about 510,000 retired military and public education on the island, with an additional nearly 640,000 people working, totaling about 1.15 million. This group of military, public and educational armies with more than one million have always been known as the "stable force of society". They are guaranteed to work and retirement, and are also the main source of consumption.
But since the issue of changing the new year began to have a fever two years ago, the stable consumption power of this social class has begun to be decreasing. Although according to the official report, the authorities can save NT$28.486 billion per year after the annual reform, some experts say that the side effects are much more than the money saved - when the 28.5 billion that the retired military and public education should have consumed instantly disappeared, the actual impact of long-term rolling may be NT$85.5 billion. At the same time, the impact of annual reforms even extended to the next generation, and social welfare donations have also shrunk.
The tourism industry has suffered a severe blow. Military, public education and education are the main tourism group, but after the change of the road in July, the willingness to travel from the island was declining. According to statistics from Taiwan's tourism management agency, the number of tourists traveling to the island over 60 in June was about 240,000, but by July, there were only 180,000 people left, a total of 60,000 people were missing.
The five listed travel agencies on the island have experienced a rare phenomenon of a comprehensive decline in revenue during the peak tourist season in July. Each leading travel agency each has a decline of 4% to 35%. Tourism industry officials admitted that this situation usually occurs when encountering financial tsunamis, terrorist attacks or epidemics. Unexpectedly, the main cause of this recession was the "year reform" policy on the island.
The China Times pointed out that the Taiwanese authorities cut their pension budgets and seemed to have made a profit, but once the "annual reform" triggers the domino effect of "consumption cliff", it puts Taiwan at the risk of economic regression. Is there any profit overall?
What is ridiculous is that in the process of subsidizing people from new south to travel to Taiwan, Ge Baoxuan, director of the Asia-Pacific Department of Taiwan's Foreign Affairs Department, said recently: In order to encourage Taiwanese people to travel to Palau or other "friendly countries", tourism operators will be formed in the near future. The relevant operations are currently being planned.
Tourism on the island has plummeted. Although we still have to take care of "friendly countries", the Taiwan authorities' "focus on being a person" is truly amazing.
★Source: Xiamen TV's "Direct Flights Cross-Strait" column
✑Written by: Fang Yifan
✎Editor: Chen Jinhua
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