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Taiwan Business TOPICS
With no end to the pandemic yet in sight, it may take years for the travel industry to fully recover. In the short term, the leisure market has the best prospects.
As Taiwan faces a difficult coronavirus outbreak, imagining the future of travel in the country is a challenge. After all, besides containing the outbreak, the government is also focused on helping travel businesses survive this difficult period.
Looking ahead is crucial to the industry’s future prospects, though. The pause in international arrivals gives Taiwan a chance to rethink its tourism strategy, which has focused in recent years on maximizing the number of visitors. In 2019, a record 11.84 million people visited Taiwan, up 7% year-on-year. The vast majority were leisure travelers, who spend less than those who travel for business purposes.
Taiwan Business TOPICS Photo: Martti Chen
After a year with no typhoons, Taiwan is currently experiencing its worst drought in more than half a century. Reservoirs revealed their eerie secrets as the water level receded: bridges, schools, and even whole abandoned villages were uncovered. As of April, the worst-hit areas of Taichung and Miaoli Counties have been put on “Red Alert,” with rolling two-day water shutdowns being carried out every week, as well as additional restrictions for businesses. If the long-anticipated monsoon “plum rains” in May and June do not come, the entire west side of the island, including the silicon stronghold of Hsinchu, is in danger of going into Red Alert.
Taiwan Business TOPICS
By Austin Babb and Jason Wu
Guidelines, Visit Show Improving U.S. Ties
U.S.-Taiwan relations are showing further signs of strengthening as Washington continues to make overt gestures of support for Taiwan. The U.S. Department of State recently released an update to guidelines regarding interactions between American diplomats and their Taiwan counterparts. In a short press statement, the State Department highlighted Taiwan as a “vibrant democracy and an important security and economic partner,” and said that the new guidelines “liberalize guidance on contacts with Taiwan.” Taiwan’s representative to the U.S. Hsiao Bi-khim and other Taiwanese officials and politicians took to Twitter to welcome the State Department’s decision.
Taiwan Business TOPICS
KMT Protests U.S. Pork
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has begun ramping up its efforts to block U.S. pork containing the feed additive ractopamine from entering Taiwan after the Tsai administration’s announcement in August that it would lift the ban on such imports in 2021. In addition to its efforts to hold a referendum on the issue, the KMT encouraged thousands of its supporters to join an annual labor protest march in November called the Autumn Struggle. The KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), the party established by Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je, set up stages on the sidelines of the rally. The KMT estimated that more than 20,000 participants joined its contingent of the protest.