President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday promised to revive the nation’s tourism industry and local economy with a NT$30 billion (US$890 million) tourism industry development fund.
The government is also seeking visa-free travel to the US and European countries, the president said.
The number of visitors to Taiwan and Japan increased after the two nations granted 90-day visa-free entry to each other’s citizens. The government will continue negotiating with the US and the EU in a bid to secure visa-free travel programs, Ma said.
Statistics from the Tourism Bureau showed that the number of tourists visiting Taiwan increased by 3.5 percent last year.
The growth is encouraging given the fact that departures dropped by 5.5 percent during the year, Ma said.
The number of tourists visiting Taiwan each year was still much less when compared with other countries in Asia such as Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore.
“Following the implementation of cross-strait direct links, Taiwan is no longer subject to any restrictions in terms of its transport and connection to the outside world. Taiwan should use its geographical advantage to develop the tourism industry,” Ma said yesterday at the “Tour Taiwan Year 2009” festivities held at the Grand Hotel.
Accompanied by Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) and representatives from the tourism industry, Ma promised to carry out his campaign promise of establishing a NT$30 billion fund to help develop the tourism industry and also to focus the government’s efforts on integrating the tourism industry with healthcare and cultural industries to create even more business opportunities.
In addition to attracting Chinese visitors, the government and private sectors should also provide more measures to attract visitors from other countries, Ma said.
The Cabinet has listed NT$1 billion this year for tourism industry developmentt, Ma said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
The Taipei Summer Festival is to begin tomorrow at Dadaocheng Wharf (大稻埕), featuring four themed firework shows and five live music performances throughout the month, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said today. The festival in the city’s Datong District (大同) is to run until Aug. 30, holding firework displays on Wednesdays and the final Saturday of the event. The first show is scheduled for tomorrow, followed by Aug. 13, 20 and 30. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Disney Pixar's movie Toy Story, the festival has partnered with Walt Disney Co (Taiwan) to host a special themed area on
Aftershocks from a magnitude 6.2 earthquake that struck off Yilan County at 3:45pm yesterday could reach a magnitude of 5 to 5.5, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Seismological Center technical officer Chiu Chun-ta (邱俊達) told a news conference that the epicenter of the temblor was more than 100km from Taiwan. Although predicted to measure between magnitude 5 and 5.5, the aftershocks would reach an intensity of 1 on Taiwan’s 7-tier scale, which gauges the actual effect of an earthquake, he said. The earthquake lasted longer in Taipei because the city is in a basin, he said. The quake’s epicenter was about 128.9km east-southeast
BE CAREFUL: The virus rarely causes severe illness or death, but newborns, older people and those with medical conditions are at risk of more severe illness As more than 7,000 cases of chikungunya fever have been reported in China’s Guangdong Province this year, including 2,892 new cases last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it is monitoring the situation and considering raising the travel notice level, which might be announced today. The CDC issued a level 1 travel notice, or “watch,” for Guangdong Province on July 22, citing an outbreak in Foshan, a manufacturing hub in the south of the province, that was reported early last month. Between July 27 and Saturday, the province reported 2,892 new cases of chikungunya, reaching a total of 7,716
STAY VIGILANT: People should reduce the risk of chronic liver inflammation by avoiding excessive alcohol consumption, smoking and eating pickled foods, the physician said A doctor last week urged people to look for five key warning signs of acute liver failure after popular producer-turned-entertainer Shen Yu-lin (沈玉琳) was reportedly admitted to an intensive care unit for fulminant hepatitis. Fulminant hepatitis is the rapid and massive death of liver cells, impairing the organ’s detoxification, metabolic, protein synthesis and bile production functions, which if left untreated has a mortality rate as high as 80 percent, according to the Web site of Advancing Clinical Treatment of Liver Disease, an international organization focused on liver disease prevention and treatment. People with hepatitis B or C are at higher risk of
RSS