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No Official Word on Taiwan Tourist Proposal
Taipei's widely-publicized plan to open the island to Chinese mainland tourists has still not been confirmed due to "an absence of concrete arrangements between the two sides."
Officials said it is uncertain whether mainland residents will be able to visit Taiwan from July 1 as suggested, although Taipei said it is planning to lift a decades-old ban on visits.
"So far, we know little about the plan," said a spokeswoman with the Information Department of the Taiwan Affairs Office under the State Council. The office is the country's top body dealing with cross-Straits affairs.
The spokeswoman said that neither Taiwanese authorities nor non-government bodies have contacted her office about the unilateral tourism plan.
"So we cannot give any comment on it (the plan)," she said.
"Even if the Taiwan side does want to open the island to Chinese mainland tourists, lots of communication and co-ordination work is needed to make arrangements for it," she added. "It's not an easy thing."
The spokeswoman, however, indicated her organization is ready to help if Taipei officially puts forward the proposal.
Up to 500,000 tourists from the mainland will be permitted to visit Taiwan after July 1 under the plan to "adjust cross-Straits ties," according to press reports.
Details of the new policy were still being drafted by related government "ministries" and agencies, media reports said.
Industrial analysts forecast that a flood of mainland tourists would generate an annual income of at least 4 billion Taiwan dollars (US$120 million).
Taiwan allowed its residents to visit the mainland in 1987. But it currently allows mainland residents to visit the island only to attend conferences or to visit relatives, citing security reasons.
Xue Guifeng, head of the International Liaison Department of the China National Tourism Administration, said: "Our knowledge about the plan is only limited to what we have read in media reports.
"There has been no contact between tourism authorities from either side about how to implement the plan."
At present, tourism agencies on the mainland do not run services and businesses related to visits to Taiwan.
A Beijing tourism agent, who declined to be named, said "it is high time that Taiwan allowed visits" because "tourism should always be two-way.
"Allowing Chinese mainland residents to visit Taiwan will be mutually beneficial," he said.
"Besides economic returns, visits may also help promote better understanding among people on both sides."
More than 2.4 million Taiwan compatriots visited the mainland for tourism, business, family reunions or higher education during the January-November period last year
Source: chinadaiy.com.cn
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