Chinese tour groups may not visit until 2024: MOTC minister

TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Mainland Chinese tour groups may not be able to visit Taiwan until next year, said Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai on Monday (Oct. 16) during a meeting with the Legislative Yuan Transportation Committee. 

Despite Taiwan's goodwill gestures and hopes that the travel ban between the two places could be lifted in the second half of this year, mainland China has yet to respond, Wang explained. 

The Mainland Affairs Council began allowing mainland Chinese citizens entering from a third location to visit Taiwan as tourists on Sept. 1. 

The council plans to resume cross-strait group travel and hopes to allocate a quota of 2,000 tourists for mainland Chinese groups to Taiwan. However, the implementation date is subject to mainland China's response, which Taiwan authorities have yet to receive.

Wang emphasized that cross-strait travel reopening cannot be one-sided.

He believes that unilaterally approving Taiwanese tourists to visit mainland Chinese could lead to declining domestic tourism as Taiwanese residents travel to the mainland.