Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/07/23
By: W.T. Chen and Lillian Lin

Taipei, July 23 (CNA) Taiwan’s Tourism Bureau announced Wednesday that with effect from Oct. 1, travel agencies will be required to purchase visitor medical insurance for Chinese tour groups to cover unexpected illness, injuries or death.

The bureau said it is tightening its regulations because unpaid medical bills racked up by Chinese visitors to Taiwan over the past few years have reached an estimated NT$100 million.

Under the new regulations pertaining to travel permits for visitors from mainland China, all tour groups must be covered by visitor medical insurance, at a minimum of NT$500,000 (approximately US$16,000) for injuries or illness and NT$2 million (approximately US$64,800) for death-related expenses.

Currently, travel agencies are only required to purchase liability insurance of NT$2 million for each member of their tour groups.     [FULL  STORY]