President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said cross-strait flights have benefited large enterprises and small businesses, and the number of tourists to Taiwan is expected to reach 5 million next year.
Citing government statistics, Ma, in his capacity as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman, said that because of cross-strait flights, the number of Chinese tourists last year increased five to six times the number recorded in 2008, which he said contributed to an annual growth in tourism of 14.3 percent in the midst of a global financial crisis.
“Some challenged the government’s cross-strait policies and said only big enterprises profited from the policies, but that is not true,” Ma said yesterday when presiding over the KMT Central Standing Committee. “Small hotels, eateries, transportation companies and department stores all benefited from the increasing number of Chinese tourists brought by cross-strait flights.”
Tourism Bureau Director-General Janice Lai (賴瑟珍) gave a presentation on the government’s plan to attract more tourists to Taiwan at the committee and said the number of international tourists in Taiwan was expected to hit 5 million next year.
She said the bureau would promote popular attractions to tourists by offering various discounts and designing different activities.
Ma said the government would devote more effort to promoting tourism to bring NT$500 billion (US$15.58 billion) in tourism revenue to Taiwan this year.
“Tourism is an industry that will not leave or be moved away because it creates revenue by attracting people to spend money here,” Ma said.
The government will put NT$30 billion into the industry this year and the private sector is also investing an estimated NT$25 billion to build and reconstruct hotels to improve the quality of tourism in Taiwan.
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