TAIPEI: The Tourism Bureau is being forced to consider alternatives to Alishan for attracting mainland tourists to central Taiwan. Access to the mountain resort is still difficult two months after the disaster of Typhoon Morakot. As things now stand, only nine-seat vans are allowed to travel the partially open road to the Alishan scenic area - two months after flash floods triggered by the typhoon brought the Alishan Forest Railway to a halt and seriously damaged the mountain roadway.

Tourism Bureau Director-General Janice Lai said the bureau will introduce the Sitou forest recreation area in central Nantou County and the nearby Shanlinsi forest recreation area as options for mainland tourists who intend to visit Alishan - one of their few must-sees in Taiwan.

Changhua County's Lugang, known for its more than 300-year-old Longshan Temple, is also on the bureau's alternatives list.

"The scenic attractions of Sitou and Shanlinsi are on a par with Alishan with similar pure coniferous forests, while Lugang offers charms of a Taiwanese fishing port in addition to its rich cultural legacy as an old town," said Liu Hsi-lin, chief secretary of the Tourism Bureau.

Liu said he has recently taken travel industry representatives from the mainland to Sitou and Shanlinsi to acquaint them with the areas and found his guests very surprised and impressed by what they saw.

"The crisis of Alishan could be an opportunity for other local tourist areas, like Sitou, Shanlinsi and Lugang," Liu noted.

Meanwhile, since only nine-seat vans are allowed to drive up to Alishan at present, the bureau has encouraged local travel agencies to arrange smaller tour groups from Japan and Europe to take trips there.

Responding to concerns that the number of mainland tourists visiting Taiwan has declined in recent months, Lai said she expects the numbers to rebound after a group of 500 mainland officials in charge of tourism and travel agency executives visit Taiwan at the end of this month for a cross-Straits travel fair to be held at the Taipei World Trade Center.

Mainland residents have been allowed to make sightseeing tours of Taiwan since July 2008. Taiwan in principle allows no more than 3,000 mainlanders to visit Taiwan per day.

In April, an average of 3,280 mainland tourists entered Taiwan per day, but that number fell to 1,500 per day in May and has averaged around 1,000 since, according to Tourism Bureau tallies.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 10/14/2009 page2)