FILE PHOTO: Taiwan residents and visitors enjoy the night scene in Taipei. PHOTO DAPHNE GALVEZ
CLARK FREEPORT — Allaying concerns about the safety of foreign travelers, Taiwanese officials and tourism industry players on Wednesday renewed their call for Filipinos to visit their country despite the island’s ongoing tension with China.
“Taiwan is a place to bring comfort and happiness to your hearts. With hundreds of leisure farms around Taiwan, people can explore the farms for vegetable and fruit-picking, flower-viewing, tea-making and so much more,” said Wallace Minn-Gan Chow, representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines, during the Taiwan tourism workshop at SMX Convention Center here on Wednesday.
Abe Chou, director of the Kuala Lumpur-based Taiwan Tourism Bureau, told the Inquirer that Filipino tourists have nothing to worry about the ongoing tension between his country and China.
“Taiwan remains a peaceful and safe destination, especially for people of Southeast Asia. Taiwan is still safe. They should not worry about that. Everything is okay [in Taiwan],” he said.
International news reports cited the almost daily presence of Chinese vessels and aircraft around Taiwan. China has been insisting that self-ruled Taiwan is a breakaway province that must be “reunified” with the motherland.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has not ruled out the possible use of force to achieve this.
In response, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said her country would not bow to Chinese pressure but would not provoke China as she called for the maintenance of the status quo of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
Ties
Taiwanese tourism officials, officers of the Taiwan leisure farms association and representatives of several travel and tour agencies in Taiwan attended the workshop here to establish partnerships with Central Luzon and Northern Luzon-based travel agencies for organizing tour activities to Taiwan.
In his speech during the workshop, Chow said it would take only less than two hours of air travel from the Philippines to Taiwan, with 116 weekly flights available between the two countries.
“Taiwan and the Philippines are closer than one can think of. From Batanes province in northern Luzon, one will be able to see the clear skies of Pingtung, the southernmost city of Taiwan,” he said. “I don’t know whether that’s true or not,” he added, eliciting laughter from the audience.
Chow said 65,000 Filipino tourists visited Taiwan in 2022, with his government seeking to increase this figure to at least 320,000 this year.
On March 30, Taiwanese carrier EVA Airways made its inaugural flight from Taipei to Clark International Airport here, offering daily flights to and from Taoyuan International Airport in Taipei.
Philippine budget carrier Cebu Pacific also launched its direct flights directly to Taiwan from Clark on April 29.
Earlier on Jan. 7, Philippines AirAsia resumed its Kaohsiung route after it was suspended at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. AirAsia offers three flights for this route per week.
Visa-free
“I cordially invite Filipino friends to join us in exploring Taiwan’s beauty, especially with the modern-day visa-free program,” he said.
It was learned that in 2019, before the start of the pandemic, some 510,000 Filipinos visited Taiwan.
Philippine passport holders are allowed to enter and stay in Taiwan for 14 days without a visa. But the privilege is set to expire on July 31. Taiwanese tourism officials said there was a possibility that their government would extend the visa-free privilege to Filipinos.
One of the highlights of the tourism workshop is the presentation of the New Taipei City, which surrounds Taipei City, Taiwan’s capital.
With more than four million residents, New Taipei City is considered the most populous city in Taiwan and offers many historical sites, festivals and activities to tourists.
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