Under the previous regulations, Japanese and South Korean travelers who successfully applied for Taiwanese visas were granted multiple-entry visas with a three-month validity, allowing them to stay for up to 30 days on each visit. Now, following the updated regulations, Japanese and South Korean citizens seeking Taiwanese visas are required to adhere to the standard Taiwanese visa application procedure, which typically takes around eight days for approval. This isn't the first instance of Taiwan imposing stricter visa rules on Vietnamese tourists. In 2019, Taiwanese authorities temporarily halted the issuance of e-visas to Vietnamese tour groups participating in the special program. This decision was made in response to an incident in which authorities detained 17 out of 152 Vietnamese tourists on suspicion of entering Taiwan for investigation purposes. On December 28 of the same year, the Vietnam Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei urged Taiwanese authorities to prioritize the safety and humane treatment of the detained individuals and to handle the matter in accordance with the law during the investigation process.
Subsequently, Taiwan announced the suspension of the issuance of online visas for tourist groups participating in the "Kuan Hung Pilot Project." This e-visa initiative aimed to attract high-quality tour groups from ASEAN member states, including Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and India. In recent years, Vietnam has become one of the largest source markets for Taiwan's tourism industry. In 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic, Taiwan welcomed over 777,000 Vietnamese tourists, representing a significant year-on-year increase of 26.5 percent.
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