Tourists who have visited Taiwan multiple times in the past three years can enter a competition to win free accommodation at L’hotel de Chine Group five-star hotels if they sign up for an event run by the Tourism Bureau entitled “Fans of Taiwan.”
One Japanese tourist surnamed Masatoshi claims to have visited the nation 110 times between 2013 and this month, the bureau said.
The competition has been launched to celebrate the fact that more than 10 million tourists are expected to visit the nation this year, the bureau said, adding that it expects the 10 millionth international tourist to arrive some time next month.
The competition is mainly aimed at countries and territories that have the highest numbers of repeat visitors to the nation, including Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia and the US, the bureau said.
Based on data collected by the bureau so far, no one comes close to the number of visits made by Masatoshi.
The bureau said it would verify the claims of tourists signing up for the event by checking their arrival and departure details at the National Immigration Agency, adding that the final list would be announced on Dec.7.
Entrants deemed to be true “Fans of Taiwan” are to win one night’s free accommodation at each of the 10 L’hotel de Chine Group hotels across the nation, the bureau added.
Bureau statistics show that about 926,900 international tourists arrived in the nation last month, representing a year-on-year increase of 9.49 percent.
The total number of tourists visiting the nation between January and last month reached 8.47 million, an increase of 4.67 percent from the same period last year.
China remains the largest source of tourists, with 3.49 million Chinese visiting Taiwan between January and last month, a climb of 5.79 percent.
Although the number of Japanese tourists declined year-on-year, it remained the second-largest source of tourists to Taiwan with 1.29 million visitors.
The number of visitors from Hong Kong and Macau rose by 7.89 percent to top 1.23 million, whereas South Korean visitors increased by 23.5 percent to hit 530,000. Positive growth was also seen in other areas, with visitor numbers from the US growing by 3.38 percent, from Singapore by 2.44 percent and from Europe by 2.84 percent.
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