CORONAVIRUS/Tourism market takes heavy hit

amid COVID-19 surge

Passengers wait for ferry in the outlying islands of Matsu in April. CNA file photo

Taipei, May 12 (CNA) The escalating COVID-19 numbers in Taiwan this week

has caught the local tourism sector off-guard, with some reporting financial

losses and expressing pessimism toward the future market outlook on

Wednesday.

Since the government tightened disease control measures the previous day

following multiple domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases of unknown origin,

many tourism operators have been forced to cancel tours, according to Travel

Quality Assurance Association spokesman Ringo Lee (李奇嶽).

Lee said his own company has suffered a loss of NT$7.5 million (US$269,000)

from cancellations of graduation tours, as the government has instructed schools

to suspend off-campus events.

The uncertainty of how the pandemic will unfold has also affected the future

planning and sale of domestic travel packages, which have been well-received

since the outbreak last year and have helped the sector survive the downturn, he

said.

Moreover, domestic travel packages such as tours to worship local gods or deities

at temples around the nation, which were popular as the pandemic was well

controlled, will no longer win active support from government officials because

they are concerned about the spread of the virus and public criticism, Lee said.

With the development of recent outbreaks remaining unclear, what the industry

can do now is only to try to maintain operations at the lowest cost, he said. "Our

problem now is more about whether we can survive this instead of making

money."

Also affected by the rise in COVID-19 cases was Dream Cruises, which on

Wednesday cancelled 10 domestic sightseeing trips between May 12 and June 8.

Meanwhile, China Airlines (CAL), one of Taiwan's largest carriers, confirmed

that considering low passenger loads on the ongoing Taiwan-Palau travel bubble,

it will cancel its two weekly round-trip flights between the two destinations on

May 15 and May 19.

Hsiao Po-jen (蕭博仁), head of the Travel Agent Association of the Republic of

China (Taiwan), said the escalation of COVID-19 cases has added to the woes of

the program, where market demand has already stayed low.

"We had originally hoped to make travel to Palau as easy as to Penghu, but it

looks like the market has not met our expectations," he said, adding that the

program that kicked off in April only saw about 200 tourists for the entire month.

However, while Hsiao said the travel bubble's prospects for the future are rather

dim now that there are more cases of the virus, the transport ministry said that the

bubble will remain in place.

Deputy Transportation Minister Chi Wen-jong (祈文中) said that CAL still has

sufficient manpower to operate the travel bubble route, after 14 of its over 1,270

pilots were confirmed to have contracted the disease over the past three weeks.
As of Wednesday, Taiwan had recorded 1,231 cases of COVID-19, 1,056 of

which have been classified as imported. Of the total, 1,097 have recovered, 12

have died and 122 are in the hospital, according to CECC statistics.

(By Lee Hsin-Yin)

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05/12/2021 06:04 PM

https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202105120014