Many at Los Angeles travel show wonder when Taiwan will open to tourists

洛杉磯旅展上很多人都想知道台灣什麼時候對旅客開放

Visitors at Taiwan’s booth also wondered when they will not be required to undergo quarantine


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Many American visitors at Taiwan’s booth in the brick-and-mortar Los Angeles Travel & Adventure Show, which returns from March 12- 13 after an interruption of two years by the COVID-19 pandemic, have inquired when Taiwan will open up to international tourists.

Song Yi Mun, deputy director at the Korea Tourism Organization’s Los Angeles office, told CNA that the South Korean government has recently announced that, starting from April 1, all tourists entering South Korea will not be required to undergo quarantine if they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Mun said the South Korean government is looking forward to more Americans visiting the country.

Mun said the Korea Tourism Organization introduced VR headsets at its booth to let interested people experience the country’s scenery.

In addition to inquiring about travel information, most show visitors at Taiwan’s booth were wondering when Taiwan will open its borders to international visitors and when they will not be required to undergo quarantine when they go to visit the country.

A travel enthusiast identified by CNA only as Jim said that when he makes a travel plan in the post-pandemic era, he will look at how well a foreign country had been doing in terms of pandemic prevention, and through media reports he knew that Taiwan had done a terrific job in this regard. Therefore, Jim, who visited the show with his wife, said he looked forward to traveling to Taiwan in the future, per CNA.

A local retiree identified only as Mel said he used to keep a travel bucket list, on which he had planned to check all the boxes while enjoying his retired life, but the pandemic had upended his plans, and right now, he would look at how the pandemic prevention measures in other countries had been relaxed to consider whether to include them in his travel plan or not, according to the CNA report.

Mel said he was very interested in Taiwan as he learned from his studies that “Taiwan’s history is longer than American history, and that it and China are two different countries.” However, he said when he learned that quarantine is a requirement for entering Taiwan, he instantly backed away, per the news agency.

Stephen Lennon, who is a U.S. Navy retiree in his 70s, said he was looking forward to revisiting Taiwan after its pandemic prevention measures are relaxed for the first time in 50 years. He said that time flies as he was in his 20s when he traveled to the country last time and that he longed to go back to see what has changed there over the years.

Lennon savored the places he had visited, which included Yangmingshan, Taroko, and Sun Moon Lake, and said he remembered them as if it was yesterday. He was stationed at a naval base in Japan in the 1970s, and his warship often docked at Kaohsiung Harbor for supplies, and during his vacations, he had traveled to many places around the country. The most unforgettable thing for him is that his best friend was married to a Taiwanese girl at Sun Moon Lake, CNA cited him as saying.