Editor's note: China Daily is publishing a series of reports on cross-Straits relations ahead of Taiwan's new leader taking office. The reports are jointly compiled with the Taipei-based China Post. This, the second in the series, looks at the tourism sector. It is by China Daily reporters An Baijie and Hu Meidong and the China Post news staff.
Tourism operators from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, already experiencing a drop in numbers, fear an even greater drop if cross-Straits relations take a turn for the worse after Tsai Ing-wen takes office as the island's leader on Friday.
Tourism manager Zhang Siwei found that promoting Taiwan-bound trips among Chinese mainland customers this year has been harder than before.
Zhang is vice-general manager of Strait High-Speed Tourism of Pingtan. The company operates the Haixiahao, a high-speed ferry launched in 2011 between Taipei and Pingtan, the closest point to the island on the Chinese mainland.
Passenger numbers declined sharply in April — normally a busy month for Taiwan-bound tourism agencies — compared with the same period over the past few years.
"During its peak period in April 2014, there were more than 17,000 passengers commuting across the straits on the Haixiahao. Even in April last year, when the ferry underwent repairs and was out of service for some days, passenger numbers were still more than 12,000. However, only about 8,000 traveled on the ferry this April," he said.
He attributed the drop to the island's power handover.
"Many mainland people are reluctant to travel to Taiwan at a time when the cross-Straits ties are facing uncertainties caused by the handover of the island's political power," he said.
His worries have increased amid recent indications that Tsai, from the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, might not accept the 1992 consensus, which has the one-China principle at its core.
In March, Zhang Zhijun, head of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said that Tsai should clarify her understanding of cross-Straits relations.
Her view of the consensus remains ambiguous and she has said only that she is willing to "maintain the status quo".
Cross-Straits relations could now be affected by "unknown factors", he said.
Tien Yi-show, chairman of the Taiwan Travel Industry Association in Taipei, said of Tsai and the consensus that "it looks like she is going to skip that line. If that is the case, I can tell that hard times are soon to come."
