The Kuomintang (KMT) held a press conference today (July 5th) entitled “Inadequate Government Financial Relief: Tourism, Travel, Hospitality are becoming Miserable Industries” in order to address the beating that the domestic tourism industry, including travel agencies, hospitality, transportation, souvenir shops, and others, are all receding due to the outbreak of COVID-19. These industries are on the brink of collapse, with the situation even graver than that of last year. The KMT emphasized that, if the Tsai Ing-wen administration continues to ignore the dreadful situations of those working in these industries, then Taiwan’s tourism industry may become a “miserable industry” in both name and in fact.
According to the latest news reports, Taiwan Tour Bus Limited Company has decided to reduce its number of personnel by 80%; barely 20% remain to maintain the bare minimum level of operations. Taiwan Tour Bus has become the first tour bus company to cut stuff because of the latest wave of pandemic outbreaks. The tourism industry representatives attending today’s press conference raised a grave appeal to the government, hoping that the government will provide more financial relief more quickly.
The tourism industry representatives pointed out that the pandemic is more serious than it was last year; last year, there was still domestic tourism, whereas this year there is basically none. Furthermore, the nationwide level 3 pandemic alert has been prolonged repeatedly, and as a result, the Ministry of Transportation Tourism Bureau has also repeatedly requested that travel agencies are “prohibited from leading tour groups.” Although the alert may be lifted in the middle of this month, the people are still hesitant. Confidence in the safety of tourism will require at least three months before it recovers; tourism’s typically busy summer market has declined to a standstill. Every tourism company’s operations are on the verge of standstill, yet COVID-19 Relief Package 4.0 falls short of last year’s COVID-19 Relief Packages. Last year, there were still three months of NT$ 300,000 of operations subsidies per company, with absolutely no subsidies at the moment. As for the employee salary subsidy of COVID-19 Relief Package 4.0, tourism companies can only be subsidized once for NT$ 40,000 over three months per employee. Worse, the souvenir industry is eligible for up to NT$ 20,000. These amounts are mere drops in the ocean. As for operations losses subsidies, current policy subsidizes eight tour groups for one travel agency. However, a cost for one tour group is less than NT$ 10,000, so this amount also fails to cover basic expenditures.
Regarding the tourism industry’s current plight of suffering from severe financial impact due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the KMT proposes seven appeals for the government:
- Implement COVID-19 relief in a “preferential, lenient, and swift” manner so as to assist the tourism industry in overcoming this period of difficulty.
- Increase personnel salary subsidies in order to alleviate the pressure to cut stuff.
- Ease restrictions on, and comprehensively provide, operations subsidies (for example, subsidies on rent, water and electricity fees, Labor/Health Insurance payments, and various taxes).
- Appoint two to three state-owned banks to take charge of credit and loan circulation.
- Extend the deadlines of last year’s COVID-19 relief loans, postpone loan principal repayments, and implement loan interest subsidies, all for one year.
- Procure vaccines as quickly as possible. Furthermore, plan a timetable for opening the border to “vaccination passport” holders.
- Include frontline workers in the tourism industry on the priority list for vaccination in response to the increase demands in tourism after lockdown is lifted.
The KMT emphasizes that tourism is an industry that drives Taiwan’s economy. Tourism is connected to and influences the development of every single one of Taiwan’s service-related industries. Tourism is also connected to and influences the livelihood of grassroots merchants, snack and refreshment sellers, street venders, and other basic level businesses. The government must not recklessly overlook the heavy losses that this year’s domestic pandemic situation has had on the tourism industry. The impacts of the pandemic are unequivocally deeper and wider this year than they were last year. The KMT states that sufficient, effective, and internationally verified vaccines are the fundamental resolution to the COVID-19 pandemic; vaccines will also allow the domestic tourism industry to regain its vitality.
