Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry confirmed to the news agency that the experiment to provide visa-free travel for citizens of Russia, as well as for Thailand, Brunei, and the Philippines will be prolonged starting from August 1. The permitted term of Russians’ stay on the island will be increased to 21 days since August, the ministry said. 

According to official statistics, the numbers of Russian tourists in Taiwan is increasing. For January - May 2019, 6,844 travelers from Russia visited the island, which are two more than for the same period of 2018. The launch of direct flights from Moscow and Vladivostok to Taipei and the abolition of visa regime between the countries promoted the increasing of tourist traffic. 

This year, 2 times more tourists from Russia came to Taiwan. This was announced by Denis Nikolaev, the official representative of the Information and Tourist Center of Taiwan in Moscow. Now, the volume of the tourist flow is still insignificant, because over the period from January to May, 6.8 thousand Russians visited the country. Nevertheless, there are prospects for its further growth. 

Russian tourists visit Taiwan without a visa since September 2018. Reliefs were supposed to end on July 31 of this year. But, the authorities of the island, having fixed the success of the program, decided to extend it for another year - until July 31, 2020. One of the major tour operators already launches its line of tours to Taiwan. 

S7 Airlines and Royal Flight have announced that they plan to launch flights to Taiwan from the end of May. It concerns only the flights from Vladivostok and Moscow. This was reported by International Radio of Taiwan with reference to the data of the local civil aviation authority. 

Russian airline Royal Flight is expected to launch regular flights to Taiwan later this year, the country’s Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said Sunday, according to the Taipei Times.  The agency said it has received a letter from Russia’s civil aviation authorities designating Royal Flight to offer regular air services to Taiwan, but noted it has yet to receive a flight schedule application from the carrier. 

From September 6, 2018 Russians will be able to visit Taiwan without visas. Tour operators expect a favorable effect from the innovation, but they note that visas are the only reason for a small number of tourists from Russian Federation in Taiwan. Visa-free regime for Russians is introduced as an experiment.

In order to promote the inbound tourism, enhancing the understanding of Russian nationals on Taiwan, and enhancing the economic and trade relations between Taiwan and Russia. Taiwan has decided to offer 14 days of visa-free for Russian nationals who came to Taiwan for the purpose of tourism, business, family visits, exhibitions and international exchanges.

Most countries have been recording a 10 to 50% drop in the number of Russian tourists. But some destinations are still in demand with the Russians, one of them is Taiwan. Even though in absolute figures the tourist flow to the island from Russia is not that great, there is an increase which is a quite positive sign.