As the coronavirus forcing major airline companies to park their planes idle at the airports across the globe, an airport in Taiwan has come up with a unique offer to her 'travel deprived' citizen. Songshan airport that is situated in Taipei will offer 90 people a chance to a tour of their airport and relive the experience of going through the set procedure while taking a flight abroad that includes immigration, boarding a plane, and then landing and going back home. A flier on the airport's official website read, "Can't leave (Taiwan), then pretend to go abroad at Songshan."
Countries exploring innovative ways to revive travel
Notably, among two international airports situated in Taipei Songshan is the smaller and is close to centre of the city beside the Keelung River. As per a report on CNN, Covid-19 which has already affected more than 70 lakh people all across the globe, has severely hampered the tourism amidst countries shutting their borders to contain the borders. Some countries are exploring ways to revive their travel industry. For instance, Australia and New Zealand are coordinating to organize a "travel bubble" between these nations. In order to contain the virus, Taiwan shut down its borders, foreign nationals are still not allowed in the island nation.
The flier shown on the website informed that there will a competition through which there will be three tours of Songshan Airport on July 2, 4, and 7. "The tours will take half a day and will allow visitors to experience what it would be like to go through immigration and then board the plane, followed by re-entering the country through immigration," said Chih-ching Wang, deputy director of Taipei Songshan Airport. He further went on to add, "People who didn't have the opportunity to take international flights at Songshan (can) use this chance to experience and learn more about boarding process and relevant service facilities."
He also said that the whole program will be set up in a way if a participant were boarding for a trip, after which they will disembark and go back through immigration. Moreover, the participants will also experience the newly built facilities at the airport. On completion of the mission, they also have a chance to win "exclusive mysterious gifts."
