The number of Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan reached 2.73 million last year, down 18 percent from the previous year, but down 33 percent since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) assumed office in May last year, Ministry of the Interior statistics released on Saturday showed.
A total of 3.47 million Chinese visitors arrived in Taiwan last year, 2.73 million of whom (78.8 percent) came for tourism, while others visited for professional exchanges or medical treatment, statistics showed.
There were 600,000 fewer tourists than in 2015, a decrease of 18 percent. However, when May to December last year is compared with the same period in 2015, there were 739,925 fewer tourists, a drop of 33 percent, National Immigration Agency data showed.
Overall Chinese visitor arrivals dropped last year, down 16.2 percent compared with the previous year.
There were 41,000 fewer Chinese professional exchange visitors during the whole of last year, as compared with 2015.
The drop in Chinese visitors came amid cooling relations between Taiwan and China since Tsai took office, mainly due to her refusal to heed Beijing’s call to recognize the so-called “1992 consensus” as the sole foundation for cross-strait exchanges.
The so-called “1992 consensus” — a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted to making up in 2000 — refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party that both sides acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Taiwan has been seeking to attract more tourists from Southeast Asia through measures such as streamlining visa procedures.
As a result, the total number of foreign visitors last year increased by 2.4 percent to a record high of 10.69 million, despite the drop in Chinese visitors.
However, tourism industry statistics have shown that Chinese tourists, especially those coming in tour groups, tend to spend more money.
Despite the overall decline in Chinese tourists, those who took advantage of the “small three links” to visit Kinmen, Matsu and Penghu increased by 12,000, the ministry said.
About 256,000 Chinese visitors last year came via the “small three links” across the Taiwan Strait, the ministry said, adding that this represented 7.4 percent of total Chinese visitor arrivals in Taiwan.
Meanwhile, 133,000 Chinese nationals visited Taiwan last year for professional exchanges, accounting for 3.8 percent of the total, the ministry said.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm this morning. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8kph, with peak gusts reaching 90kph, it said. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 — ranging from 50kph to 61.5kph — extended up to 80km from the center, it added. Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping
RSS