By Huang Yi-ching, Wu Liang-yi and William Hetherington / Staff reporters, with staff writer
Some travel agencies are using labels such as “cultural visits” to advertise tours to China despite the government’s ban on organized group travel, sources from the tourism industry said on Sunday.
The number of Taiwanese traveling to China rose 19.63 percent year-on-year to 2.49 million in the first eight months of this year, making China the second-most popular overseas destination, after Japan.
Taiwan has maintained the ban since February 2024, allowing only independent trips to China. However, sources told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the sister paper of the Taipei Times) that travel agencies are advertising China tour packages under labels such as “cultural visits” and “group independent travel.”
People visit the Forbidden City in Beijing in an undated photograph.
Photo: Reuters
Taiwan first banned travel agencies from organizing outbound tours in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ban was scheduled to be lifted in 2024, but Taipei maintained the restrictions in response to Beijing’s prohibition on Chinese tour groups and independent travelers visiting Taiwan.
Statistics released by the Tourism Administration on Saturday show that Taiwanese made 14.53 million overseas trips from January through August, including 2.49 million to China, accounting for 17.4 percent of the total. Commenting on the increase, Providence University Department of Tourism associate professor Huang Cheng-tsung (黃正聰) said the increase in travel to China was consistent with the overall growth in overseas travel.
Meanwhile, sources told the Liberty Times that travel agencies were advertising itineraries to popular Chinese destinations, including Jiuzhaigou, Xinjiang, Zhangjiajie and the Yangtze River. The Web sites listed daily itineraries resembling conventional group tours, but marketed them as cultural visits or group independent travel.
However, in practice, agencies were dispatching their staff to accompany travelers, potentially violating the restrictions, they said.
When reached for comment on Sunday, Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang Ho-ting (黃荷婷) said that travel agencies remain prohibited from openly soliciting members of the public to join organized tours to China. Violators face fines of up to NT$50,000 under the Regulations Governing Travel Agencies (旅行業管理規則).
An industry source who spoke on condition of anonymity said a common workaround was for associations, community groups, village and borough wardens, businesses, government agencies, or groups of friends and relatives to organize their own trips and hire travel agencies to handle the arrangements.
The source cited a bus crash involving a group of relatives and friends traveling in Gansu Province this year as an example.
Another method involves travelers departing Taiwan separately as independent travelers, then gathering in China to join an organized tour. This allows some agencies to continue recruiting participants discreetly despite the ban, the source said.
“For travel agencies, it is a strange rule that does little damage, but is deeply insulting,” the source said.
Travel Association of Chinese chairman Hsu Chin-ruey (許晉睿) said agencies might legitimately post tourism information on their Web sites for reference, provided listings do not include departure dates or indicate that trips are open for registration.
Such information might fall within the normal scope of a travel agency’s business, he said.
However, members of the public who find Web sites listing departure dates and opening registrations can report them to the Tourism Administration.
Huang said agencies may still organize visits and inspection tours, arrange trips organized by groups themselves, and book plane tickets and accommodation for travelers heading to China.
Exchange or inspection delegations invited by Chinese organizations are exempt from the suspension if they have specific purposes, designated destinations and eligibility requirements for participants, she said.
She urged agencies to comply with the rules and avoid illegally soliciting customers, which could lead to travel disputes.
If the Tourism Administration confirms that an agency has illegally solicited participants for an organized tour to China, it can order the agency to make improvements by a specified deadline or impose a fine of NT$10,000 to NT$50,000, Huang said.