Visitor numbers from countries targeted by the government’s “new southbound policy” showed double-digit growth since its introduction in September, boding well for the future of the tourism industry, which has been suffering from a decline in the number of Chinese tourists, the Office of Trade Negotiations said in a statement yesterday.
Figures for the January to October period showed 47.1 percent year-on-year growth in tourist arrivals from Thailand, 24.3 percent in the number from Vietnam and 18.8 percent from the Philippines, the office said.
Tourism Bureau statistics also showed that October visitor arrivals from South and Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand grew 25.4 percent year-on-year to 166,931, the office said.
This growth came despite a decline in tourist numbers of 8.75 percent from other parts of the world and proves that the strategy is reaping rewards in the tourism sector, the office said, adding that the number of visitors from the south is expected to increase.
The new southbound policy was introcuded by the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to foster relations with Taiwan’s southern neighbors.
So far, 15 of the 18 target countries included in the plan have reported year-on-year growth in the number of travelers to Taiwan in October, according to the Tourism Bureau data.
Cambodia reported the highest increase of 87.8 percent, followed by Vietnam with 73.7 percent, Thailand with 73.3 percent and Brunei with 68.3 percent, statistics showed.
The office said that since the policy was implemented in September, the government has taken several effective steps to boost tourism from the target countries, including granting conditional visa-free status granted to citizens of Thailand, Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.
In October, at a meeting of the Committee on Global Economic and Trade Strategies, Premier Lin Chuan (林全), hailed the policy as mutually beneficial for the countries involved.
He was quoted as saying that cooperation between the countries would create ties unlikely to be affected by political changes in target nations.
It would further facilitate the signing of bilateral investment protection agreements to better safeguard investments and economic activities of overseas Taiwanese businesses, he said.
With the implementation of the policy, Taiwan is seeking to make up for declining numbers of tourists from China and to establish less dependent bilateral relationships.
A small number of Taiwanese this year lost their citizenship rights after traveling in China and obtaining a one-time Chinese passport to cross the border into Russia, a source said today. The people signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of neighboring Russia with companies claiming they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, the source said on condition of anonymity. The travelers were actually issued one-time-use Chinese passports, they said. Taiwanese are prohibited from holding a Chinese passport or household registration. If found to have a Chinese ID, they may lose their resident status under Article 9-1
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
PROBLEMATIC APP: Citing more than 1,000 fraud cases, the government is taking the app down for a year, but opposition voices are calling it censorship Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday decried a government plan to suspend access to Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu (小紅書) for one year as censorship, while the Presidential Office backed the plan. The Ministry of the Interior on Thursday cited security risks and accusations that the Instagram-like app, known as Rednote in English, had figured in more than 1,700 fraud cases since last year. The company, which has about 3 million users in Taiwan, has not yet responded to requests for comment. “Many people online are already asking ‘How to climb over the firewall to access Xiaohongshu,’” Cheng posted on
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS