Taoyuan has for five consecutive years been the least visited city by domestic travelers among the nation’s six special municipalities, the Tourism Bureau said.
Only 6.3 percent of trips made by Taiwanese in 2020 were to Taoyuan, the bureau said, citing a survey published in September last year.
Kaohsiung was the second least visited city, with 8.6 percent of trips, while Taipei and Tainan each were the destinations of 9.2 percent of domestic trips, the bureau said.
Taichung was the destination of 11.3 percent of trips, while New Taipei City accounted for 11.7 percent, it said.
Taoyuan does not feature many experiences that Taiwanese enjoy, the Taoyuan Department of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said in its annual audit report for last year.
The report said the top five destinations in the survey were cities that promote outdoor experiences, urban travel, natural scenic spots, water activities and luxury camping, dubbed “glamping.”
The Taoyuan City Government should improve the city’s hiking trails to attract visitors during the post-COVID-19 era, it said, adding that travel survey results should be used as a reference for marketing local tourism.
However, Taoyuan has seen the largest increase in tourists among the six special municipalities, Lee Fu-hua (李復華), a specialist member of the Taoyuan Department of Tourism committee, said on Thursday.
Taiwanese only paid about 9 million visits to Taoyuan in 2018, but the number rose to about 20 million in 2020, Lee said.
The city introduced measures to promote tourism, including subsidies to tour groups and cooperation with travel agencies to organize special itineraries, Lee said.
It also held a variety of events to draw tourists, such as the Bean Curd Festival in Dasi District (大溪), the Longgang Rice Noodle Festival, the Northern Cross-Island Travel Festival and Halloween City, Lee added.
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