Taiwan welcomes back visa-free entry for New Zealand tourists

On Monday Taipei welcomes back tourists visa-free for the first times since the pandemic. Photo / Lisanto, Unsplash

From Monday Taiwan will reopen its borders to visa-free entry for visitors from New Zealand, the United States and other 'safe' countries, as the strict Covid-19 travel restrictions ease.

The island nation - also known as the Republic of China - has held off reopening to leisure traffic longer than almost any other country in Asia. Even after Japan let its first visitors into the country on guided tours in June, Taiwan remained off limits to tourists, though it cut the quarantine period for arrivals from seven to three days.

Since the beginning of the year the country has reported over 5 million covid cases. Finally the government appears to have taken a new tack, relaxing restrictions as part of learning to live with the virus in the community. With morbidity at less than 1 per cent for all cases the country has adopted a new strategy called the "new Taiwan model".

From Monday 12 September normal visa-free entry will resume for visitors arriving from New Zealand, the US, Canada, Australia and Europe.

This decision is largely to bring Taiwan's border protocols in line with its diplomatic allies. Covid response command centre chief Victor wang said that normal travel would resume but visitors would still need to produce a negative PCR test on arrival and quarantine for three days. Theses measures remain in place along with a cap of 50,000 foreign arrivals a week.

Taiwan's vaccine rates against Covid-19 are over 85.5 per cent and has already ended requirements fore pre-departure tests for returning citizens.

The popular tourist destinations of Taipei, its coasts and the inland nature reserves were well visited by tourists from mainly Asian markets. Japan and South Korea were among the main markets, however with the tourism restart it is likely Taiwan will be looking to welcome tourists from further afield.