The dwindling number of Chinese and other foreign tourists visiting Taiwan since the government opened up to Chinese passport holders last year is evidence that the “three links” policy has been ineffective, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday.
“When Taiwan first opened up to Chinese tourists in July last year, the initial figure was around 300 to 400 a day. At that time, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) promised that the numbers would pick up over the following months and reach 3,000 a day. Except for April and May, however, the average has only been 1,307 Chinese tourists a day,” DPP policy division deputy executive-secretary Liu Chien-hsin (劉建忻) said.
The DPP is expected next week to release an assessment report on the impact on tourism, air and sea routes, and agriculture since the opening of the “three links” — direct air and sea transportation, as well as mail services across the Taiwan Strait — in November last year.
Liu said that, compared with the small number of Chinese tourists that visit Taiwan, China receives on average 11,897 Taiwanese tourists per day.
“It is obvious who is benefiting from the opening of the three links,” he said.
Moreover, while the Ma government boasted that NT$60 billion (US$1.8 billion) would be brought in by Chinese tourists, the actual revenue was only NT$32.8 billion, slightly more than half of the expected amount, he said.
Ma also promised that 40,000 new job opportunities would be created as a result of raising the cap on Chinese tourists, but in reality there were 13,200 less jobs since the deal was signed, Liu said.
In addition to the low numbers of tourists from China, foreign travelers from other major developed countries, such as the US, Japan, South Korea and European nations, had also dropped, Liu said.
DPP figures showed that as at the end of September, the number of Japanese tourists was 8.31 percent fewer than in the same period last year. Tourist numbers from the US and Europe also fell, by 7.65 percent and 2.1 percent respectively.
The largest decline was in the number of tourists from South Korea, 38.56 percent lower, he said.
The over-reliance on Chinese visitors is both dangerous and counterproductive, Liu said, adding that Chinese tourists on average spend US$30 less than other foreign visitors.
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