Chinese tourists exceeded Japanese tourists in their average daily expenditure in Taiwan in the first three quarters of last year, the Tourism Bureau said, adding that tourism revenue deficits during this period were caused by the devaluation of the Japanese yen and regulatory measures imposed on tour groups from China.
Statistics from a bureau survey conducted between January and September last year showed that each Chinese tourist spent an average of US$232.15 per day, including costs for transportation, accommodation and shopping, compared with an average of US$221.45 spent by Japanese tourists per day.
The survey also found that overall spending by international tourists has gradually decreased. In 2014, the average daily expenditure was US$221.76 per person, down from US$224.07 in 2013 and US$234.31 in 2012.
The bureau said that the decline was linked to a reduction in spending by Chinese and Japanese tourists while in Taiwan, with tourists from these countries accounting for nearly 60 percent of the nation’s annual international visitors.
The bureau said that Japanese tourists probably cut their overseas travel costs due to a continuous devaluation of the Japanese yen and an increase in their consumption tax.
The average daily expenditure of Japanese tourists was US$243.33 per person in 2014, which dropped by 8.27 percent compared with 2013, survey showed.
For Chinese tourists, the average daily expenditure in 2014 dropped by 6.80 percent to US$243.33 per person, with 53.09 percent of the expenditure spent on shopping, according to the survey.
The bureau said that studies from the UN World Tourism Organization showed that regional tours account for 90 percent of the global outbound tour market, in which tourists prefer short-term stays and short travel distances.
This could explain the slide in the average number of nights that international tourists spent in Taiwan — from 6.87 per person in 2012 to 6.86 in 2013 and 6.65 in 2014, the bureau said.
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