Government to widen scope of use for National Travel Card: report

National Travel Cards are a special perk for civil servants, giving them up to NT$16,000 a year to spend on travel. According to a national print outlet, the government now wants to let cardholders use it on a wider range of services, including cosmetic procedures and laundry. The report has drawn fury from hotel and tour operators, who say widening the card's scope of use would hurt the travel sector. In response, the government says the plan is still under review. Taiwanese civil servants are given National Travel Cards that can be used to purchase hotel accommodation, bus and train tickets and cover other expenses related to domestic travel. According to a recent report, the Executive Yuan is looking into broadening the card’s scope of use starting from July 1. A print media report claims that the card could soon be used for everything except jewelry and sex services, including hospital bills, cosmetic surgery bills, laundry services, moving services and even water, electricity and gas bills. When the news broke out, tour and hotel operators across the nation were furious. Chen Ping-chungHotel industry representativeThis would deal an enormous blow to the travel and accommodation industry. As domestic tourism is in a slump, we really hope that consumption from the National Travel Card can be directed back to the hotel and B&B market. The Tourism Bureau said however that the new system was still under discussion and that nothing had been finalized. Liu Shih-mingTourism BureauHalf the allowance offered by a National Travel Card is used for tourism and travel. So the proposed change would not have too great an impact on the travel and tourism industry.The National Travel Card was first issued in 2003 to compensate civil servants for overtime and to rejuvenate local tourism in the aftermath of the 921 Earthquake. Last year, amid falling numbers of mainland tourists, the Executive Yuan required that half the card’s NT$16,000 maximum allowance be used for domestic tourism.