Kenting tourism, which dipped over the 2017 and last year’s New Year holidays, grew moderately during this year’s holiday, with the Pingtung County Government recording nearly 40,000 visits to Kenting over the four days through Tuesday.
Kenting recorded about 60,000 visits on New Year’s Day in 2016, but that dropped to 48,000 in 2017 and 30,000 last year, the Pingtung County Police Department said.
As of 4pm on Tuesday, the department said it has recorded more than 38,000 visits to Kenting.
Photo: Tsai Tsung-hsien, Taipei Times
A vendor in Kenting known as A-kai (阿凱) said the crowd of tourists was a welcome sight, adding that visitors started arriving on Saturday last week, and swelled on Sunday last week and Monday.
Despite the rain and overcast weather on New Year’s Eve, there were still tourists milling about the streets as late as 11pm, A-kai said.
An experienced tour guide surnamed Liu (劉) said that Kenting has seem some negative incidents over the past few years, but residents and the county government have been making changes.
Tourists are returning because there is something new to see, such as events in surrounding Hengchun Township’s (恆春) Gucheng area and by the Sihchong River (四重溪), as well as an art festival in the Port of Haikou in Checheng Township (車城), Liu said.
Pingtung Transportation and Department of Tourism Director Huang Kuo-wei (黃國維) said that the increase in visits was due to subsidies, transportation discounts and improved sanitary standards in the area.
Ideal weather over the long weekend and more family outings also contributed to better tourism numbers this year, Huang added.
Tourist visits are expected to stay high through the Lunar New Year holiday and Lantern Festival, Huang said, adding that the county is improving infrastructure to make the tourism market more sustainable.
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