Taiwanese travel agencies are being required to complete pre-departure registration for mainland-bound travellers on a group-by-group basis, with fines of up to NT$50,000 for violations — bad news for cross-strait tourism operators.

• From September, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications' Tourism Administration requires travel agencies to help travellers complete pre-departure registration for mainland travel group by group, or face fines.
• KMT legislator Lee Yen-hsiu criticised the move as an escalation after the 2024 "group tour ban" proved ineffective, amounting to taking it out on travel agencies that are already struggling to stay afloat.
• The public is voting with its feet: the number of people travelling to the mainland hit a record high last year, and reached 2.17 million trips in the first seven months of this year, with first-time mainland travellers under 45 accounting for more than 70 percent of Taiwan Compatriot Permit applications.
• The Blue camp argues that if filing is to be made mandatory, it should apply uniformly to all destinations under an orange travel alert; otherwise singling out the mainland will leave operators worried about being politically labelled.

• The same day saw several other election-campaign controversies, including the Control Yuan — during a vacancy period with no sitting members — taking an interest in the exchange-student case involving Chiang Wan-an's son, with the Blue camp questioning whether the state apparatus is intervening in the election.

Outlook: After strong pushback from the industry, the competent authority has shifted to conducting outreach first, but the dispute over penalties will continue to spill over into the year-end election campaign in the near term.