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Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) is urging officials in Mainland China to properly discuss familiarisation trips they are planning to make to the country. This is in preparation for the resumption of tour group visits by Shanghai and Fujian province residents.

In a statement issued on Friday, 24th January, MAC officials said:

“To ensure that future tourism exchanges are conducted in a healthy and orderly manner, matters related to familiarization trips to Taiwan should be discussed through ‘the two cross-strait tourism associations’ before proceeding.”

A necessary response

MAC’s statement was a response to one made earlier on the same day by Chen Binhua, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), the Council’s counterpart in China. In his statement, Chen confirmed that those organising familiarisation trips already submitted applications to Taiwanese authorities to visit Taiwan.

Chen stated:

“We hope that the visits by tourism professionals from the two regions to Taiwan proceed smoothly, laying a solid foundation for the resumption of group travel for residents of both regions.”

Discussions are underway

MAC officials added that the Taiwan Strait Tourism Association (TSTA) will be in touch with its mainland counterpart, the Association For Tourism Exchange Across the Taiwan Straits (ATETS), to propose discussions on matters of mutual concern.

The TSTA and ATETS were established by Taipei and Beijing, respectively, to facilitate coordination and negotiations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait on tourism.

At present, China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MCT) only allows Fujian residents to visit Taiwan-held Kinmen and Matsu, but not other cities or counties in Taiwan.