Lin made the announcement before attending the Taiwan Island-Hopping Cruise Ship Tours Summit in Taipei. The Tourism Bureau said that the subsidies had not been canceled, just suspended. The Maritime and Port Bureau and Tourism Bureau have also been preparing for the launch of the “Year of Island-Hopping Tour” in 2023, Lin added. Starting in October, there would be cruise ship tours around Taiwan proper, which would stop at Keelung, Taichung, Kaohsiung and Hualien before returning to Keelung. Should the pandemic ease, the bureau would allow international tourists to fly to nation and join the island-hopping tours, it said.

Source: Taipei Times July 22, 2020 15:56 UTC