旅行業管制制度與法規鬆綁研議──由部落文化體驗行程為觀察角度

The Study of Deregulation of Travel Agency Industry in Taiwan: Why the Indigenous Culture Tourism is underdeveloped

我國發展觀光條例乃在動員戡亂時期的團體旅遊為本位所設立的管理制度，當時因尚未有消費者保護法與其他可保障旅客的法律規範，為保護旅客及監控團體行程，將旅行業定義放寬納入所有可能發生的旅遊行為以避免非旅行業者假借招攬旅客旅遊名義從事旅遊相關業務而無法管控。然而過去20年來國內外旅遊趨勢早已改變，70 %以上遊客選擇自主規劃旅遊行程而不參加團體旅行，旅行業管制架構與法規卻仍以團體旅遊為主要規範對象。
旅行業管制制度與法規至今未能鬆綁，非法律問題，而是政治問題。傳統旅遊產業以政治力阻擋制度開放與法規修訂以阻礙更多新進業者加入，維護其既得利益。對於新創業者、社區發展協會及返鄉青年爭取多年至今無法獲得合法解套，消費者也無法獲得充足保障，甚感遺憾。
本文回顧旅行業發展軌跡、述說臺灣旅行業管制架構與法規設計之演進，提供旅遊產業鏈分析，說明當前旅行業管理架構與法規應降低門檻讓更多新進業者加入增加消費者選擇以促進產業轉型與升級，也能提供旅客更完整的權益保障。
最後以疫情期間深度旅遊趨勢下部落文化體驗行程爆紅為例，建議推出旅行業監理沙盒以實驗旅行業在科技創新與旅遊型態轉變後，新形態旅遊商業模式的法規調適最佳方案。

Taiwan is a heaven for free independent travellers (FIT) who enjoy outdoor activities, such as hiking, cycling, water sports and beach. Over two-thirds of Taiwan being mountainous, there’s a lot of space to get away from the crowds, esp. in pandemic era. Indigenous villages dot the foothills of mountain ranges, forest reserves and national parks. Many offer eco tours and indigenous hunting adventures. Why all these fun outdoor activities in Taiwan are hidden jewelry without much exposure on the press or social media? The key reason is offering package, provide travel planning or itinerary publicly online without a travel agency license may be illegal and subject to fine.
The Regulation Governing Travel Agencies, enacted on October 27, 1953, is to regulated the travel agencies for mass tourism and to protect the mass tourists who travel in large groups and buy predefined travel packages. Though this Regulations has been amended 46 times in the past 60 years, it still keeps the original regulatory framework since 1950s where no FITs and the main goal was to protect the mass tourists only. Since mass tourism is fading and FIT is becoming a norm, there are many service providers offer variety of services to FITs, such as diving, farming experience or indigenous culture adventure. The majority of these service providers don’t have travel agency licenses, because the cost of obtaining a license is quite high and the industry is highly or even over-regulated for mass tourists protection. Though academic and a few Congressmen have urged Taiwan Tourism Bureau (TTB) to deregulate the travel industry by relaxing the regulation so that no license requirement for travel consultation or the service for meal, lodging and transportation arrangement. However, these suggestions were strongly against by the dominant players in the travel agency industry and TTB was forced to ignore the needs of FITs and travel start-ups.
This study analysis the root cause of government failure in the deregulation of travel agency industry, and suggest to apply the sandbox system in the indigenous culture tourism to allow the travel star-up to grow and FITs have more options to choose.