CAPITAL COMPLAINS: Legislator Cheng Pao-ching said that it was unreasonable to exclude Taipei, Taoyuan and Hsinchu City because of their hotel occupancy rates

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 21, 2018
By: Shelley Shan  /  Staff reporter

Taipei, Taoyuan and Hsinchu City are to be included in the Tourism Bureau’s winter domestic travel subsidy program next month in compliance with a resolution passed at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday, the bureau said, adding that the budget for the program would be increased from NT$980 million (US$31.8 million) to NT$1.3 billion.

The bureau is to subsidize tour groups and independent travelers, regardless of where they visit, it said.

It previously excluded independent travelers to the three cities from receiving the subsidy on the grounds that average hotel occupancy rates in the three cities in the past three years were above 50 percent.

Local government officials and hoteliers criticized the policy as it was.
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