Despite the lack of a formal response from the Taiwan authority
to the mainland's removal of a travel ban on Friday, many mainland
travel agencies are eager for potential business opportunities.
Hu Shuwei, marketing director of the CTS (Hong Kong)
International Travel Agency, has received hundreds of calls over
the past three days requesting information about a Taiwan tour.
"These eager citizens called in to ask for a detailed itinerary,
prices or a timetable," Hu said.
Zhou Feng, a 62-year-old native of Beijing, called visiting
Taiwan "his lifelong dream."
Yang, a 39-year-old fan of Taiwan pop singer Teresa Teng, wished
to pay homage to Teng's tomb in Junyuan Garden in Jinshan Village
of Taipei County.
Many mainland travel agencies have started to make preparations
for tour packages ranging from five to 10 days.
In Guangdong Province, some agencies already began booking
services as the Taiwan authority imposed a ceiling of accepting
only 1,000 mainland travelers per day.
Although Taiwan is only about 150 kilometers away from the
mainland, travelers in Beijing have to stop over in Hong Kong first
before flying to Taipei and spend at least 6,000 yuan (US$725) for
a round-trip ticket.
Analysts say after Taiwan is formally opened to mainland
tourists, cross-Straits passenger traffic may skyrocket and
facilitate the realization of direct flights between Taiwan and the
mainland.
To attract as many as travelers possible, agencies in Xiamen, a
coastal city of Fujian Province, is promoting a boat tour to the
Jinmen Islands, which they say costs less than flying.
In Shanghai, thirty local travel agencies have been invited by a
Taiwan tourism foundation for a weeklong market survey tour of the
island scheduled in June.
Some Taiwan analysts say that mainland travelers may create a
daily tourism market worth 10 billion yuan (US$1.21 billion), if
they each spend 1,000 yuan a day.
The China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) announced on
Friday three principles on opening tourism for mainland residents
to Taiwan, saying that mainland travel operators would closely
coordinate with their counterparts in Taiwan and control travelers'
flow by taking into consideration accommodation capability and
other conditions.
According to the CNTA, about 30,000 mainland residents visited
Taiwan for various exchange programs in 2004, up 25 percent from
the previous year.
The number of Taiwan visitors to the mainland reached 3.68
million last year for family reunions, tourism, business, academic
study and other purposes, an increase of 35 percent year on
year.
The mainland has received 33.87 million travelers from Taiwan
since 1987, when the two sides resumed exchanges after a
38-year-old standoff, representing an annual average increase of 17
percent over the past 17 years.?
According to China Daily some 400 overseas Chinese
gathered in Xiamen on Monday and composed an open letter to their
Taiwan compatriots expressing their wish for early
reunification.
(Xinhua News Agency May 24, 2005)