By Hsiao Yu-hsin and Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporter, with staff writerSome Taiwan-based online travel agencies are not pleased with a new hotel booking Web site that the Tourism Bureau has set up. The platform was created after domestic hotels complained that foreign booking sites take large amounts of commission. However, an anonymous source from the local tourism industry said yesterday that local online travel agencies are already suffering due to “unfair competition” from foreign booking platforms, and now the bureau has created “yet another booking platform to compete with businesses.”Another anonymous source questioned whether the bureau would be able to maintain the service. If the bureau cannot address these issues, the platform would just become a “policy statement,” the sources added. Local online travel agencies have been “forgotten” by Taiwan’s tourism industry, said Chang Feng-wen (張奉文), chairman of the Taipei-based TravelKing Internet Agency Co.

Source: Taipei Times November 03, 2019 15:56 UTC