TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) has caused Taiwanese tourists to be turned away from hotels in India because their passports call the island by its official name, “Republic of China,” CNA reported Wednesday (March 11).

A Taiwanese businessman who encountered problems on the subcontinent has reportedly asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) to have the name “Taiwan” printed inside the passports as well as on their cover.

India has gradually banned visitors from China, Japan, South Korea, Italy, Germany, Spain, France, and Iran, leading to hotels refusing guests from those countries. While the word “Taiwan” has been added to the cover of passports, hotel staff mostly only copy inside pages to register guests in their computer systems, so when they find the word “China," problems may arise, CNA reported.

In some cases, Taiwanese business people have had to argue for half an hour before hotel receptionists understood the difference between the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China and dropped their objections to the new guests.