Taiwan restarts special visa program for tour groups

The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Hanoi told VnExpress that there are 121 designated Vietnamese travel agencies that could apply under the Kuan Hung visa program.

The program is part of Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy to establish closer ties with select nations like Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam and make it easier for their nationals to visit Taiwan by applying for visas online with simplified procedures.

Introduced in 2015, it is meant for groups of five or more tourists coming through accredited travel agencies.

After the pandemic broke out in early 2020, Taiwan closed its borders to tourists and suspended the program.

It reopened on October 13.

Visitors are not needed to furnish a negative Covid test result or make a medical declaration before boarding.

In recent years Vietnam has been among the biggest source of visitors for Taiwan, which has been enjoying a tourism boom.

In 2019, the year before the onset of Covid, it received over 777,000 Vietnamese visitors.

Vietnam saw a 30% rise in visitor numbers from Taiwan the same year.