Tourism Bureau Director General Janice Lai (
"We originally set a goal of 5 million overseas tourists for next year, but later decided to set the bar a bit lower," Lai said.
She said that the figure needed to be adjusted because of a number of factors, foremost of which is the government ban on direct visits by Chinese tourists.
Lai made the comments during a meeting at the legislature's Transportation Committee to review the budget for the Ministry of Transportation and Communications next fiscal year.
Lai said that the tourist arrival target was set in 2002, in which bureau officials estimated that the annual growth in overseas visitors would be between 400,000 and 500,000.
Tourist arrivals numbered 2.9 million in 2002, she said.
Foreign arrivals dropped during th SARS outbreak in 2003, with the figure falling to 2.25 million, Lai said.
While the number of visitors recovered in 2004, it still failed to exceed the 3 million mark.
Lai said that the growth in overseas tourists remained strong, with 3.4 million visitors arriving in 2005.
The figure further climbed to 3.5 million last year.
But with overseas tourists numbering only 2.7 million in the first nine months of the year, the bureau will have difficulties meeting this year's goal, she said.
The Tourism Bureau also issued a statement last night saying it had merely taken "a more practical approach" when it decided to reset its target.
The statement also said that the number of overseas visitors who arrived for "tourism purposes only" has increased since 2002. Last year, for example, they accounted for 73 percent of all overseas tourists.
Meanwhile, Hsu Kao-ching (
"The issue has been discussed for too long and too many times," he said.
Hsu also said the bureau needed to beef up its efforts to promote Taiwan's tourism attractions abroad.
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