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.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS