Tourism market takes heavy hit amid COVID-19 surge
ROC Central News Agency
05/12/2021 06:04 PM
Taipei, May 12 (CNA) The escalating COVID-19 numbers in Taiwan this week has caught the local tourism sector off-guard, with some reporting financial losses and expressing pessimism toward the future market outlook on Wednesday.
Since the government tightened disease control measures the previous day following multiple domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases of unknown origin, many tourism operators have been forced to cancel tours, according to Travel Quality Assurance Association spokesman Ringo Lee (李奇嶽).
Lee said his own company has suffered a loss of NT$7.5 million (US$269,000) from cancellations of graduation tours, as the government has instructed schools to suspend off-campus events.
The uncertainty of how the pandemic will unfold has also affected the future planning and sale of domestic travel packages, which have been well-received since the outbreak last year and have helped the sector survive the downturn, he said.
Moreover, domestic travel packages such as tours to worship local gods or deities at temples around the nation, which were popular as the pandemic was well controlled, will no longer win active support from government officials because they are concerned about the spread of the virus and public criticism, Lee said.
With the development of recent outbreaks remaining unclear, what the industry can do now is only to try to maintain operations at the lowest cost, he said. "Our problem now is more about whether we can survive this instead of making money."
Also affected by the rise in COVID-19 cases was Dream Cruises, which on Wednesday cancelled 10 domestic sightseeing trips between May 12 and June 8.
Meanwhile, China Airlines (CAL), one of Taiwan's largest carriers, confirmed that considering low passenger loads on the ongoing Taiwan-Palau travel bubble, it will cancel its two weekly round-trip flights between the two destinations on May 15 and May 19.
Hsiao Po-jen (蕭博仁), head of the Travel Agent Association of the Republic of China (Taiwan), said the escalation of COVID-19 cases has added to the woes of the program, where market demand has already stayed low.
"We had originally hoped to make travel to Palau as easy as to Penghu, but it looks like the market has not met our expectations," he said, adding that the program that kicked off in April only saw about 200 tourists for the entire month.
However, while Hsiao said the travel bubble's prospects for the future are rather dim now that there are more cases of the virus, the transport ministry said that the bubble will remain in place.
Deputy Transportation Minister Chi Wen-jong (祈文中) said that CAL still has sufficient manpower to operate the travel bubble route, after 14 of its over 1,270 pilots were confirmed to have contracted the disease over the past three weeks.
As of Wednesday, Taiwan had recorded 1,231 cases of COVID-19, 1,056 of which have been classified as imported. Of the total, 1,097 have recovered, 12 have died and 122 are in the hospital, according to CECC statistics.
(By Lee Hsin-Yin)
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