TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Tourism Bureau wants bilateral talks before allowing the resumption of mass tours between Taiwan and China, reports said Friday (May 19).

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) said Friday morning it welcomed tour groups from Taiwan as well as travelers who had booked flights and hotel stays, CNA reported. The COVID-19 pandemic and tense relations between Taipei and Beijing have reduced cross-strait travel to a trickle.

However, while welcoming the announcement from Beijing, Taiwan’s Tourism Bureau Director-General Chang Shi-chung (張錫聰) said any return to mass tourism should be preceded by talks between the Taiwan Strait Tourism Association and China’s Association for Tourism Exchange Across the Taiwan Straits (ATETS).

Taiwan had no plans to end a ban on travel agencies accepting and organizing group tourism to China, Chang said. He added that bilateral talks on tourism could start as early as later this month.

The Tourism Bureau chief said there was a consensus between Taipei and Beijing that tourism could start up again, but how to manage the reopening were issues that still needed to be discussed.