Miss Liu, a tourist from Taiwan, said that she wanted to see the Great Wall and the Forbidden City during her trip to Beijing. (Reporter Liao Shifeng/Photography)
After the outbreak of the new coronavirus, our government suspended mainland group tourists from visiting Taiwan at the beginning of 2020, and also suspended Taiwanese group tourists from visiting the mainland. In August last year, the Mainland Affairs Council proposed a set of plans, but received no response from the mainland. Soon after, in November last year The Ministry of Transport announced that group tourists will be allowed to visit the mainland. March 1, 2024 is the first day for Taiwanese tour groups to land in the mainland in more than four years. However, group tourists are surprised that the “ban on group tours” will be revived after June. Local tour guides He emphasized that he still prefers Taiwanese groups.
Ms. Li from Beijing Kinmen Travel Agency, a mainland hospitality agency, was interviewed on the evening of March 1 and said, “I still prefer to take tours from Taiwan.” (Reporter Liao Shifeng/Photography)
March 1st is the first legal day for group tourists to visit mainland China. At the Beijing Capital International Airport, there were two group tourists who arrived on EVA Air flight BR716 on the evening of March 1st, one belonging to Coke Travel and Southeast Travel. There were 23 and 20 tourists respectively, both of whom were on a five-day trip to Beijing. Many group guests were surprised that the Taiwanese media stationed in Beijing had been waiting for a long time, and they picked up their mobile phones to take photos of the interviewed group members.
As a receptionist for the Southeast Tour Beijing group, Ms. Li, the tour guide of Beijing Kinmen Travel Agency, said that she is expected to take the group members to the hotel to arrange check-in first. Tomorrow morning they will go to the National Center for the Performing Arts, Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden City, and in the afternoon they will go to the Temple of Heaven Park and Qianmen Street. , enjoy Quanjude roast duck for lunch and Donglaishun for dinner.
Ms. Li said that in her impression, Taiwanese people are quite friendly, easy to get along with, and have relatively high quality. As for group tours that will be banned again after June, she also said it was a pity. She hoped that tourists from both sides could travel. “We are also willing to go to Taiwan and welcome Taiwanese guests to Beijing.” She pointed out that she felt very sorry when she heard the news. “Originally, we are used to taking tours from Taiwan, and then we will definitely take some other tours in June. I still prefer to take tours from Taiwan.”
Mr. Dong from Taiwan mentioned that this was his first time here and he wanted to see some historical sites and places that he would have seen in TV series. He was most looking forward to the Forbidden City. He also looked forward to traveling to Zhangjiajie and Jiuzhaigou in the future. Group travelers will be banned again in June. , saying that there are still two months left, “continue to work hard.”
Another Taiwanese tourist, Ms. Liu, said that she wanted to come to Beijing because she wanted to see the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. She had seen them on TV and history textbooks and felt that she wanted to visit them in person. She said that this was her first time traveling to the mainland and she planned to visit the mainland in the future. Hua hopes to travel with a group in Shanghai this year, because some historical things still need to be explained by professional guides. But when he learned that group tourists would be banned again in the future, he was surprised and said that he didn’t know that group tourists would no longer be allowed after June.
Li Jiabin, director of the Beijing Office of the Taiwan Travel Association, said that from the outbreak of the epidemic to the end of the lockdown, cross-strait group travel has been interrupted for more than four years. He is very happy to take another step on March 1 to open Taiwan’s team travel to the mainland. At this stage, Taiwanese tourists can travel to the mainland regardless of whether they travel independently or in groups. Of course, we hope that the mainland can feel our sincerity and open up mainland tourists to travel to Taiwan as soon as possible.
Li Jiabin mentioned that the office has recently been promoting lantern festival activities in various places, and has also received many inquiries from people and tour groups, expressing their strong desire to travel to Taiwan and taste delicious food. Tourism has always been the best communication and exchange activity between people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. I hope that cross-Strait tourism can eliminate obstacles and develop in a more orderly and healthy manner. Taiwan’s tourism industry will most sincerely welcome mainland friends with open hands.
However, no mainland officials were present at Beijing Capital Airport to welcome Taiwanese group tourists on the evening of the 1st. Mainland officials also kept a low profile on the first day when the “tour ban order” was lifted and did not make any public statements.
Public information shows that after the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, on January 24, 2020, the then Minister of Transportation Lin Jialong announced a ban on the travel industry organizing groups to travel to mainland China, requiring travel agencies to suspend receiving mainland tour groups, and coordinating travel agencies to arrange mainland tour groups on January 31 Departed recently. At present, mainland group tourists visiting the mainland have not yet resumed, and mainland officials have not relented.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Mainland announced on May 19, 2023 that travel agencies will resume operating group tours for Taiwan residents to the mainland with immediate effect, but it did not further announce the opening of group tours for mainland tourists to Taiwan. According to the information recently announced by the Administrative Information Network of the Tourism Administration of the Ministry of Transport, there are 255 travel agencies in February 2024 that handle the business of receiving people from the mainland to come to Taiwan to engage in tourism activities; as for the list of tour groups from the mainland, the first to the The total number of 6 batches is 311. In addition, some mainland travel agencies that receive Taiwanese group tourists do not have the qualifications to organize groups to Taiwan, so the number of travel agencies that have engaged in cross-strait tourism business in the past is actually greater than this number.
It is understood that some travel agencies in Beijing that operate cross-strait tourism business once had hundreds of employees when cross-strait tourism was booming before the epidemic. However, due to the obstruction of tourism after the new crown epidemic, they currently only have about five people. However, there are also plans to recruit newbies in the near future. , but whether previous business can be restored still depends on when the policy is opened.
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