Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/12/25
By: Wang Shu-fen and Lee Hsin-Yin

Photo of Kaohsiung International Airport (CNA file photo)

Taipei, Dec. 25 (CNA) There have been 152 Vietnamese tourists reported unaccounted for since they entered Taiwan earlier this month, the Tourism Bureau said Tuesday, adding that it has asked the foreign ministry to suspend future visa applications from the Vietnamese tourism agency responsible for the missing tourists.

The bureau’s International Affairs Department Director Cheng Ying-huei (鄭瑛惠) said the tourists, who came to Taiwan in four groups, went missing after they arrived in Kaohsiung Dec. 21 and Dec. 23, respectively.

Their itineraries were arranged by Vietnam-based International Holidays Trading Travel Co., which the bureau said had applied for a total of 232 electronic visas through a program launched in 2015 that requires no visa fees for arrivals from Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and India.

The program is part of the Taiwan government’s New Southbound Policy (NSP), which seeks to establish closer ties with the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, along with Australia, New Zealand and India.
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