The Taiwan Affairs Office held its regular press conference on the morning of October 14, where spokesperson Chen Binhua answered questions from reporters on recent cross-strait hot topics.
According to a reporter's question, during this year's National Day holiday, the mainland's cultural and tourism market remained booming. Taiwan's tourism industry has lost the mainland visitor market due to obstruction by the DPP authorities, and its recovery has been slow. Tourism operators on the island have said that in the past, mainland tourists brought substantial benefits to Taiwan, but now those benefits are "visible but out of reach." The reporter asked for a comment on this situation.
Chen Binhua stated that according to statistics, during this year's National Day holiday, there were 826 million domestic trips with total spending of 738.375 billion yuan, representing year-on-year increases of 6.3% and 4.3% respectively.
Chen Binhua said that compatriots on both sides of the strait are one family, and we have consistently actively promoted cross-strait tourism exchange and cooperation. We hope that compatriots on both sides will visit each other more often, strengthen ties, and enhance mutual friendship. Mainland residents traveling to Taiwan once greatly boosted the development of Taiwan's tourism-related industries, enhanced the interests and well-being of grassroots people and industry operators on the island, and also promoted mutual understanding and recognition between compatriots on both sides, fostering goodwill.
However, for some time now, the DPP authorities have placed political self-interest above people's livelihood and well-being, completely ignoring the voices and demands of Taiwan's tourism operators and the general public, and have deliberately set up obstacles and restrictions to interfere with and obstruct cross-strait tourism exchanges. This has led to weak recovery in Taiwan's tourism industry and severe damage to the interests of relevant industries and the public.
Chen Binhua stated that the DPP authorities should change course, conform to public opinion, remove obstacles and restrictions on cross-strait personnel exchanges and tourism exchange cooperation, and resume mainland residents' travel to the island as soon as possible. Otherwise, they will only face opposition and rejection from more and more Taiwan compatriots.
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