The number of overseas visitors to Taiwan is expected to exceed 10 million this year for the first time in history, although their overall spending might not show much growth from last year, according to the Tourism Bureau.
The bureau expects this year’s 10 millionth overseas visitor to arrive on Dec. 15 or Dec. 16, reaching a milestone that Taiwan just missed last year, when it received a record 9.91 million visitors from abroad.
According to the latest statistics, 8.47 million overseas visitors arrived in Taiwan in the first 10 months of the year, up by 4.67 percent from the same period last year.
These tourists are projected to inject NT$445 billion (US$13.56 billion) into Taiwan’s tourism-related businesses this year, the bureau said, adding that airlines, hotels, travel agencies, tour buses and specialty stores would be the biggest beneficiaries.
Although the number of arrivals is expected to grow, total spending is likely to fall in US dollar terms from US$14.60 billion last year because of the depreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the greenback, a shorter average length of stay and the greater use of independent budget travel, a bureau official said.
Despite a global economic downturn this year, visitor arrivals continued to increase from around the world and especially Asia with the help of the government’s aggressive marketing and promotion of Taiwan tourism, the bureau official said.
Overall visitor arrivals from Asia were up by 4.94 percent in the first 10 months of this year, with the biggest increase seen in visitors from South Korea, up by 23.5 percent from a year earlier.
China has remained Taiwan’s biggest source of tourists, with nearly 3.5 million Chinese visiting Taiwan in the January to October period.
Unless the number of Chinese visitors plunges suddenly this month ahead of the Jan. 16 presidential and legislative elections, it should break the 4 million mark this year and account for about 40 percent of total visitor arrivals.
Tourist arrivals from Japan are expected to exceed 1.5 million this year, while those from Hong Kong and Macau should exceed 1.3 million, according to the data.
Meanwhile, outbound travelers from Taiwan are expected to exceed 10 million for the fourth consecutive year and even exceed 13 million by the end of this month due to the increasing popularity of overseas travel and the impact of the Japanese yen’s decline.
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