Taiwan seems to be gearing up to reopen to international tourist travel. Although group trips out of Taiwan are still forbidden, tour operators have been given a green light to flog their packages to prospective customers eager to travel overseas.
Travelers going to travel agencies’ websites often see screens telling them that international travel is not yet available. But it seems that Taiwan’s ban on groups traveling overseas will soon be relaxed.
Taiwan’s Tourism Bureau has allowed agencies to start marketing their tour packages. But it’s still unclear when group travel will be allowed by the authorities, so for the time being, agents can only take advance bookings from prospective customers.
Tang Wen-chi from the Tourism Bureau says travel agents can’t sign contracts nor collect any payments. What they can do is start marketing their products using reference prices and dates.
Tour operators pounced on the opportunity and started presenting their offers. Some have separate categories for destinations with no quarantine for fully vaccinated travelers. It would seem things have gone back to how they were before COVID. But that’s before you look at the price.
A businessman from the travel industry says that air ticket prices have increased by 30 to 50%, but that should be taken as reference only. After the group travel ban is lifted, operators will be able to provide better package deals.
Many expect the ban to be lifted in August. Air ticket price hikes seem inevitable, though, due to the vacation season, rising fuel prices and general willingness to travel abroad after two years of closed borders.
Tickets to Europe and North America seem to have gone up the most. Before COVID, a ticket to Los Angeles would set a Taiwanese traveler back NT$18,000 (US$600). A ticket for November bought now costs NT$49,000 (over US$1,600). That’s almost triple the price.
Tickets to Japan, Taiwan’s top tourist destination, have gone up by 30%, and Korea by 60-80%. Taiwan is also still limiting entries to 25,000 per week, which effectively curbs the supply of tickets. Whether airlines will lower prices after the limits are removed remains to be seen.