A woman wears a face mask while passing by posters for a famous mango shaved ice restaurant in Taipei on May 22, 2020. (Reuters photo)
TAIPEI: A trial visa-free travel programme for visitors to Taiwan from Thailand, the Philippines, Brunei and Russia will be extended for another year, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
The ministry said the visa-free programme for the four countries will be extended to July 31 next year, starting Aug 1.
Taiwan began to relax visa rules for the 18 “New Southbound Policy” countries in August 2016 as part of President Tsai Ing-wen’s efforts to advance ties with Asian countries and offset a significant slump in tourists from mainland China.
The “Southbound” countries are the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, six South Asian countries, Australia and New Zealand.
Taiwan began a trial one-year visa-free travel regime for visitors from Thailand and Brunei in August 2016. Philippine tourists were added to the programme in November 2017 and Russia in September 2018.
Statistics show that the number of visitors from those countries has maintained a steady growth since the implementation of the programme.
The number of visitors from Russia showed the largest increase of 407.55% last year compared with the previous year. The growth rate of Philippine visitors was 100.37%, Brunei visitors 41.32% and Thai visitors 34.49%.
In addition, another trial programme of simplified visa policy for six Asian countries will be extended to Dec 31 next year.
The programme, launched on Nov 1, 2015 to promote group tours, is applicable to visitors from India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.
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