Russian Nationals Granted Taiwan Visa-Free Entry|外交部宣布 開放俄羅斯來台14天免簽
加入公視會員，
按讚收藏你關注的報導
發布時間：
更新時間：
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced a trial program where Russian citizens will be able to enter Taiwan and stay, for up to 14 days without a visa. It hopes this program will spur Russian interest in Taiwan.
To promote domestic tourism, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced a trial program from Sept. 6 to July 31, 2019 under which Russian nationals will be granted visa-free entry into Taiwan for up to 14 days. It hopes this measure will spur Russian interest in Taiwan and strengthen the Taiwan-Russia trade relationship. However, this preferential treatment has not been reciprocated. Republic of China nationals wishing to travel to Russia need to fork out nearly NT$ 4,000 to get a visa. The visa application process is also quite complicated. Moreover, there are no direct flights between Russia and Taiwan.
Russian visas, whether tourism visas or business visas, require invitation letters, so the procedure is quite inconvenient. The most basic problem the government will need to overcome with the 14-day visa-free entry plan is the number of available seats on flights, because the majority of flights require transfers.
Travel agents say Russia is a popular tourist destination due to its mystique. Although tours are costly at NT$ 60,000 to NT$ 100,000, there is still a lot of interest. Every year, nearly 30 million Russians travel abroad, but only 7,000 to 8,000 come to Taiwan, based on data from the past five years. Although the number of Russian visitors to Taiwan set a new record of 9,226 last year, the majority were businesspersons. The number of tourists was only 1,732. Meanwhile, other countries receive hundreds of thousands of Russian tourists. Taiwan is not known to many Russians, and there are only 20 Russian-speaking tour guides in Taiwan.
Russians may not be very familiar with Taiwan, so we may need to spend more time promoting Taiwan to them. Regarding Russian-speaking tour guides, the truth is we don't have the ability to welcome large numbers of Russian tour groups.
Scholars say middle and upper class Russians travel frequently, especially to warm Southeast Asian countries during the winter months. They particularly like luxury beach resorts. Taiwan therefore needs to first prepare its tourist attractions before it will be able to attract Russian tourists. Meanwhile, travel agents approve of the ministry's plan. The Tourism Bureau says an exploratory Russian tour group will arrive on Sept. 28 and will assess the suitability of the northern coast and Kenting for Russian travelers. The bureau adds it hopes there will be direct flights in the future so Taiwan will be able to compete with Southeast Asian countries for Russian tourists.
