Cross-Strait Talks on Travel Safety as Mainland Visitors to Taiwan Top 2 Million

This article is a rewrite of a report from October 2012.

After a mainland tourist coach crash in Hualien, Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Fan Liqing said in October 2012 that the two sides’ tourism bodies had discussed mainland-visitor safety at their fourth annual consultation — including a memorandum on handling travel-safety emergencies, tighter tour-bus management, and a better cross-strait travel-insurance cooperation mechanism.

Why the talks?

Two million visitors — safety cannot be left to luck. Mainland arrivals in Taiwan had reached 1.7 million by end-August 2012, nearing 2011’s full-year 1.78 million; Taiwan’s tourism bureau expected the 2012 total to top 2 million in early October, a new record. Beijing, Fan said, took visitor safety highly seriously and wanted real measures so tourists could “leave happy and return safe”.

What was discussed?

Three tracks: a memorandum, tour buses, travel insurance. The agenda: signing an emergency-cooperation memorandum, managing tour coaches, and improving the cross-strait travel-insurance mechanism — a protocol for incidents, oversight for normal times, insurance for claims.

What is the lesson from 2012?

Record numbers are when safety nets need upgrading. The 2012 cross-strait tourism honeymoon hid coach-safety and insurance worries behind the 2-million milestone. The prettier the numbers, the tighter the safety net must be — a rule that fits any tourism boom, then or now.