Most Taiwanese chose to stay close to home rather than travel abroad during the Lunar New Year holiday, with the number of tourists traveling domestically rising over the previous year.
"The number of tourists visiting popular domestic destinations during the six-day Lunar New Year holiday saw a 17 percent increase on average over the same period last year," said Chiu Chang-kuang (邱長光), a section chief at the Tourism Bureau, which is under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
But the outbound travel sector reported tremendous decline this year.
"The number of people going on tours abroad during the holiday period fell nearly 50 percent from last year," said Wang Chi-han (
Tight budgets forced many people to stay near home.
"The slow economy seems to have undercut spending power, making domestic travel more attractive this year," Chiu said.
Warm weather drew the public to southern Taiwan.
"With the temperature in northern parts of the nation were too low for outdoor activities, so people decided to head south," Chiu said.
Destinations in the central or southern parts of the country reported robust business.
Pingtung County's National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium (
Janfusun Fancy World (
Nantou County, a popular tourist destination before the Sept. 21 earthquake in 1999, also reported impressive figures, with more than 110,000 visitors heading to the county's Formosa Aboriginal Culture Village (
"Visitor arrivals were up nearly 15 percent over last year," said Huang Jui-chi (
"The results are very encouraging ... finally our business has returned to pre-earthquake levels," he said
In central Taiwan, snow was the main attraction.
Thousands of people rushed to Mount Hohuan after snow fell on Feb. 3, stimulating business for hotels, restaurants and resorts nearby.
The area's Skyline Resortopia (
In northern Taiwan, low temperature sent many tourists to hot-spring resorts.
Spring City Resort (
Other hot-spring resorts in Yangmingshan, Chinshan and Wulai also reported a spike in visitors, Chiu said.
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