Taiwan plans to improve tourist satisfaction and encourage return visits as the number of foreign visitors has grown to to 10 million, Tourism Bureau Deputy Director-General Wayne Liu (劉喜臨) said yesterday.
The bureau estimated that the nation’s 10 millionth visitor this year would arrive this morning, the first time the nation has received this many foreign visitors.
The number of foreign visitors is only one of the factors in evaluating a nation’s tourism industry, Liu said, adding that higher satisfaction rates, more spending and return visits are important to sustain the sector.
On Friday, Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) said that 30 to 40 percent of foreign visitors have made a return trip to Taiwan.
According to Liu, the percentage of foreign visitors coming to Taiwan as tourists jumped from 33 percent in 2000 to 71 percent this year, while average daily spending rose from US$193 to US$213 during the same period.
However, the average number of nights foreign tourists spent in Taiwan dropped from 7.4 to 6.69, while the percentage of non-Chinese visitors that made a return trip fell from 51 percent to 48 percent, Liu said.
The government, industries and people in Taiwan need to think about how the nation can attract foreigners to make more than one visit and offer new experiences to them during each trip, Liu said.
Meanwhile, Roget Hsu (許高慶), a former secretary-general of the Travel Agent Association, called for the exploration of markets outside China, so that the nation can push the annual number of foreign visitors beyond 10 million.
A total lunar eclipse coinciding with the Lantern Festival on March 3 would be Taiwan’s most notable celestial event this year, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said, urging skywatchers not to miss it. There would be four eclipses worldwide this year — two solar eclipses and two lunar eclipses — the museum’s Web site says. Taiwan would be able to observe one of the lunar eclipses in its entirety on March 3. The eclipse would be visible as the moon rises at 5:50pm, already partly shaded by the Earth’s shadow, the museum said. It would peak at about 7:30pm, when the moon would
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday held a ceremony marking the delivery of its 11th Anping-class offshore patrol vessel Lanyu (蘭嶼艦), saying it would boost Taiwan’s ability to respond to Beijing’s “gray zone” tactics. Ocean Affairs Council Deputy Minister Chang Chung-Lung (張忠龍) presided over the CGA event in the Port of Kaoshiung. Representatives of the National Security Council also attended the event. Designed for long-range and protracted patrol operations at sea, the Lanyu is a 65.4m-long and 14.8m-wide ship with a top speed of 44 knots (81.5kph) and a cruising range of 2,000 nautical miles (3704km). The vessel is equipped with a
DEFENSE: The US should cancel the US visas or green cards of relatives of KMT and TPP lawmakers who have been blocking the budget, Grant Newsham said A retired US Marine Corps officer has suggested canceling the US green cards and visas of relatives of opposition Taiwanese lawmakers who have been stalling the review of a proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.7 billion) special defense budget. The Executive Yuan has proposed the budget for major weapons purchases over eight years, from this year to 2033. However, opposition lawmakers have refused to review the proposal, demanding that President William Lai (賴清德) first appear before the Legislative Yuan to answer questions about the proposed budget. On Thursday last week, 37 bipartisan US lawmakers sent a letter to Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the heads
Two siblings in their 70s were injured yesterday when they opened a parcel and it exploded, police in Yilan said, adding the brother and sister were both in stable condition. The two siblings, surnamed Hung (洪), had received the parcel two days earlier but did not open it until yesterday, the first day of the Lunar New Year holiday in Taiwan, police said. Chen Chin-cheng (陳金城), head of the Yilan County Government Police Bureau, said the package bore no postmark or names and was labeled only with the siblings’ address. Citing the findings of a
RSS