Taiwan is hardly a prime tourist destination. However, that might be about to change as there are continuing rumours that mainland Chinese tourists will soon be able to visit Taiwan in large numbers:

China’s top official in charge of tourism begins a 10-day visit to Taiwan on Friday, fuelling hopes the trip could open the floodgates for Chinese tourists to visit the island Beijing claims as its own.

Shao Qiwei, head of China’s National Tourism Administration, will lead a 66-member delegation to see tourist spots around the island, including the tranquil Sun Moon Lake, the misty Alishan mountain range, and the steep Taroko Gorge.

While the Taiwan government has said no official negotiations will take place during their tour, hopes are high that it can be a major step towards ushering in Chinese tourists — a potent economic force, as evident in nearby Hong Kong.

Chinese tourists would certainly revolutionise the tourism industry in Taiwan – but there are several obstacles to get over first:

• The biggest is the reluctance of the PRC to let their people visit Taiwan. Hence the interest in this officials visit – if the PRC changes its policies, then things could happen quite quickly.
• The second is the nervousness of the Taiwan government about hordes of PRC tourists either trying to defect or hide in the country (to spy or work illegally). Currently, the travel agent that organises the trip is responsible for all the tourists getting on the plane back to China, and is heavily fined if they lose a tourist – to the point where they require an NT$ 1 Million deposit from each tourist. It is only going to be the rich who visit Taiwan to start with.
• The next is the issue of direct flights from China to Taiwan. These aren’t going to happen in the near future (except maybe over Chinese New Year) – so any tourists will be flying via Hong Kong.
• The final issue is the possible need for ‘government agreement’ between officials of the PRC and officials of the ROC. Since the PRC continually refuses to talk to senior officials in Taiwan, this is a problem for all cross-strait communication. At least in this case it seems to be being handled with common sense:
  

  Wu said Shao’s visit was arranged by the private Taiwan Association for Tourism. The private association has been authorized by the Taiwan government to negotiate on its behalf and the move follows closed-door negotiations between the association and its Chinese counterpart.

  Wu said Taiwan wanted to keep Shao’s visit as simple as possible and it would not engage in talks with Taiwan officials.

  “We are quite afraid that if negotiations are involved in their visit to Taiwan, it is going to complicate things further,” Wu said.

There has been some discussion on weblogs about the general behaviour of Chinese tourists abroad – so it will be interesting how they are viewed in Taiwan. I suspect the main ‘tourist attractions’ they will be drawn to will be the larger shopping malls in Taipei, where I’m sure the storekeepers will be overjoyed to see them (and their wallets).

The only other questions are whether they’ll be able to avoid confrontations with the pro-independence Taiwanese they bump into, and how they interact with the other main group of tourists to Taiwan – the Japanese.