The nation is expected to greet its 1 millionth international visitor of the first quarter at the end of this month, earlier than scheduled, the Tourism Bureau said.
The bureau had set a goal of attracting 820,000 international tourists during the first quarter, but it met that target faster than expected, International Affairs Division Director Huang Shih-fang (黃勢芳) said yesterday.
The Taiwan Lantern Festival and an intensive international tourism marketing campaign helped the bureau exceed its goal, bureau Deputy Director-General Trust Lin (林信任) said.
Photo: Chen Hsin-yu, Taipei Times
“We need to intensify our tourism marketing in Japan. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Japan was our second-largest source of international tourists,” Lin said.
However, the return of Japanese tourists has not been significant, as Tokyo extended domestic travel subsidies from this month until the beginning of summer, he said.
South Korea has emerged as the largest source of international tourists so far this year, the bureau said, adding that Taiwan was already reporting a gradual increase in South Korean tourists before the COVID-19 pandemic.
From October last year to January, Taiwan has recorded 696,474 outbound tourists and 254,359 inbound visitors, bureau data showed.
Booking.com Taiwan area manager Regina Chan (詹雅?) said that most of the inbound travelers who arrived after Taiwan reopened its borders in the middle of last year came for business.
More international tourists want to visit Taiwan following international media coverage of Taiwan and changes in cross-strait relations, she said.
Taiwan can draw tourists from nations targeted by the New Southbound Policy and those from Europe and North American with more diverse tour arrangements, such as those focused on religion and natural scenery in Taiwan, she said.
In related news, the Travel Quality Assurance Association (TQAA) on Friday said that the cost of group tours from Taiwan to Asian destinations, including Japan and Southeast Asia, is expected to fall 10 to 20 percent in the second quarter compared with the previous quarter.
The travel agency trade group said that the depreciation of the yen and cuts in airline fares would lower group travel costs to Japanese cities.
Citing Tokyo and Osaka as the most popular destinations for Taiwanese, the association said it expected five-day tours to Osaka to cost NT$42,800 to NT$62,800 during the cherry blossom season next month and from NT$33,900 to NT$55,900 in May and June.
However, tour group costs to the US, Canada and Europe are expected to continue to rise in the April-to-June period, the TQAA said.
The sequential increase in costs to travel to the US and Canadian markets is expected to reach 30 to 40 percent in the quarter, reflecting higher transportation and lodging expenses amid rising airfares and bus costs, as well as a labor shortage.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
The Republic of China Army Command yesterday relieved Kinmen Defense Battalion commander after authorities indicted the officer on charges connected to using methamphetamine. The Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Wednesday detained Colonel He (何) after the Coast Guard linked him to drug shipments and proceeded to charge him yesterday for using and possessing crystal meth. The man was released on a NT$50,000 bail and banned from leaving Kinmen, the office said. Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Chen Chien-yi (陳建義) told a news conference yesterday that He has been removed and another officer is taking over the unit as the acting commander. The military
RSS