The total number of Taiwanese tourists traveling abroad topped 11.42 million as of last month, while the numbers so far this year are up 7.9 percent increase over the same period last year, data from the Tourism Bureau showed yesterday.
Japan remains the favorite travel destination for Taiwanese, with total number of travelers rising by 7.64 percent to 3.4 million.
The number of Taiwanese heading to South Korea also grew by 23.9 percent to reach 736,347, the largest growth compared with visitors to other countries, while the number of those heading to Thailand rose by 22.95 percent to reach 455,627, the data showed.
The number of international visitors to Taiwan rose by 3.78 percent to 7.12 million, with trial visa-waiver programs for Southeast Asian tourists helping boost the numbers of visitors from the Philippines and Vietnam by 57.17 percent and 37.76 percent respectively, while the number of Thai visitors rose by 7.64 percent.
While former Tourism Bureau Deputy director-general Wayne Liu (劉喜臨) attributed to the increase in Vietnamese visitors to the growing number of flights between the two nations and the government’s visa-waiver program, he said whether the numbers will grow steadily and mature remains to be seen.
Some analysts have said the continued growth in the number of Taiwanese vacationing abroad is evidence that the government’s pension reform programs has not affected pensioners’ interests in joining overseas tours, but others said that there might be a change in the types of people traveling abroad.
“The nation’s international visitors continue to increase overall, even though there is a significant drop in Chinese visitors,” Liu said.
“The increase in the total numbers does not necessarily mean the number of travelers in the 50-and-above age group is also growing. If the increase came mostly from a rise in the number of young travelers, it would be difficult to gauge the impact of the pension reform on the travel market,” he said.
There has been a continual increase in young people traveling due to the increase in flights offered by low-cost carriers, he said.
As more working professionals prefer to travel to destinations closer to Taiwan, which have relatively lower travel costs, the Internet has made it easier for them to book flight tickets and reserve hotel rooms, Liu said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
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BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
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