The Tourism Bureau yesterday said that the nation aims to welcome 10.5 million international tourists this year, adding that it is targeting markets with what it termed “high-spending” travelers.
The bureau said the nation drew about 9.9 million tourists from overseas last year, registering a growth of 24 percent compared with 2013. International tourists helped generate NT$437 billion (US$13.66 billion) in revenue for the sector.
The bureau said that the WTO projected that global tourism growth between January and October last year would be 4.8 percent. During that period, growth in the Asia-Pacific region’s tourism market reached 6.8 percent. However, Taiwan experienced a growth surge of about 24 percent exceeding regional and global increases.
Bureau Director-General David Hsieh (謝謂君) said Taiwan would join the other nations that welcome more than 10 million international visitors per year.
“We hope that international visitors will become more evenly distributed from different nations,” he said, adding that tourism in Japan, South Korea, North America and Europe saw growth of between 10 and 20 percent last year.
Bureau Deputy Director-General Wayne Liu (劉喜臨) said the bureau defines travelers with high spending power as those who spend more than US$300 per day during a visit, adding that the bureau plans to work with global credit-card companies to reach such visitors.
Liu said the bureau is eyeing growth in several regions this year.
In northeast Asia, the number of tourists visiting Taiwan from Japan reached 1.7 million last year, he said, adding that the bureau projects that tourists from Japan could top 2 million this year.
Meanwhile, Liu said the number of South Korean tourists rose by 55 percent to 500,000 last year.
Regarding the tourism market in Southeast Asia, Liu said the bureau is working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to streamline visa application procedures for Southeast Asian visitors.
Liu said that visitors from Europe and North America had increased by 20 percent and 16 percent respectively.
He added that the bureau is planning to enhance its tourism campaign in Germany, France and Canada.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
‘JOINT SWORD’: Whatever President Lai says in his Double Ten speech, China would use it as a pretext to launch ‘punishment’ drills for his ‘separatist’ views, an official said China is likely to launch military drills this week near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming national day speech as a pretext to pressure the nation to accept its sovereignty claims, Taiwanese officials said. China in May launched “punishment” drills around Taiwan shortly after Lai’s inauguration, in what Beijing said was a response to “separatist acts,” sending heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks as state media denounced newly inaugurated Lai. The May drills were dubbed “Joint Sword — 2024A” and drew concerns from capitals, including Washington. Lai is to deliver a key speech on Thursday in front of the Presidential Office
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Taiwan was listed in 14th place among the world's wealthiest country in terms of GDP per capita, in the latest rankings released on Monday by Forbes magazine. Taiwan's GDP per capita was US$76,860, which put it at No. 14 on the list of the World's 100 Richest Countries this year, one spot above Hong Kong with US$75,130. The magazine's list of the richest countries in the world is compiled based on GDP per capita data, as estimated by the IMF. However, for a more precise measure of a nation's wealth, the magazine also considers purchasing power parity, which is a metric used to