The next “shifts” to open borders were announced in another Asian country: Taiwan, conditionally independent from China, promised to open for tourists. True, not immediately – only to the “third quarter”, but by doing so, he confirmed the global trend.
Such a statement was made by the director of the Bureau of Tourism Chan Si-Tsun – according to him, preparations are underway to open the borders of Taiwan to tourism in the near future. Insist on this, as elsewhere, representatives of the tourism industry. “There were eight group meetings where I met with key figures in the tourism industry and that proposals were put forward to lift travel restrictions,” he said.
Chang said the bureau hopes that cross-border tourism can be conditionally reopened in stages with the permission of the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) – that is, the local operations headquarters. “In addition to opening borders for business travelers in March, Taiwan may allow foreign tourists starting in the third or fourth quarter, provided they are vaccinated. Whether the entry ban will be lifted first for tourist groups, individual tourists or both depends on further discussions,” Chung added.
The head of the local Operational Headquarters, CECC, Chen Shih-Chung, in turn, voiced his comment to the local media. He said that priority would be given to opening borders to foreign tourists over allowing Taiwanese group tours to travel overseas, as the former would increase Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves, while the return route would take out currency and bring in viruses. He also noted that the issue of “vaccine passports” and approved vaccines is still under discussion.
Recall that the tourism industry in Vietnam is exerting similar pressure on the government – and there this process seems to be more effective. Vietnam plans to allow tourism and fully open its borders to foreign travelers from March 15. However, while an official date has yet to be announced, a draft proposal to fully allow inbound and outbound tourism from mid-March is currently under development and discussion.