The Executive Yuan should allow at least 1 million Chinese tourists to visit Taiwan per year to boost tourism revenue and maintain peace across the Taiwan Strait, experts said yesterday in a panel discussion hosted by the National Policy Foundation.
Taiwanese made 11.8 million trips abroad last year, with total travel expenditure exceeding NT$713.4 billion (US$21.93 billion), Tourism Administration data showed.
By contrast, international travelers made only 6.48 million visits to Taiwan last year, spending an estimated NT$269.8 billion, the data showed.
Photo: David Chang, EPA-EFE
The tourism revenue deficit between outbound and inbound travelers reached NT$443.6 billion last year, up by NT$71.7 billion from the pre-COVID-19 pandemic level in 2019.
About 11.8 million international tourists arrived in 2019, of which 2.71 million were Chinese, the data showed.
Although the government has set a goal of attracting at least 10 million international tourists this year, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told lawmakers that it could only draw about 8 million.
Experts attending the discussion hosted by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) think tank attributed Taiwan’s widening tourism deficit to a relatively slow recovery from the pandemic as well as the government’s ban on group tours to China and the issuance of a travel alert for China.
Beijing only allows tourists to travel to Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties through group tours and still bans group tours and individual travel to Taiwan proper.
Taiwan does not prohibit individuals from traveling to China.
China was the largest source of overseas travelers in 2019, even though cross-strait relations were strained during former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) first term, High Quality of Travel Association chairman Ringo Lee (李奇嶽) said.
“Output value generated by Chinese tourists was two times higher than that of Japanese and South Korean tourists and three times higher than that of Southeast Asian tourists, because the length of their stay was twice as long,” Lee said, adding that the government would have to find tourists from other countries to make up for the deficit.
The Democratic Progressive Party government’s mismanagement of cross-strait relations has further escalated tensions and caused China to launch two large-scale military exercises this year, Lee said, adding that this has become the main reason many international travelers feel Taiwan is not a safe place to visit, in addition to earthquakes and typhoons.
Chinese tourists spent an average of US$250 per day while traveling in Taiwan, which was twice the amount spent by tourists from Japan and South Korea and five times the amount spent by Southeast Asian tourists, Chinese Tourism Management Association chairman Lee Ming-hui (李銘輝) said.
Resuming cross-strait tourism could boost the economy in different localities and create jobs, Lee Ming-hui said.
Lee Ming-hui also criticized the government’s New Southbound Policy, for which a significant amount of subsidies have been budgeted to attract tourists and students from Southeast Asia.
“The subsidies might draw students and tourists from Southeast Asia to study and travel in Taiwan for a short period. However, these subsidy-oriented programs could eventually drain Taiwan’s foreign reserves and are not sustainable,” he said.
Lee Ming-hui questioned how the Tourism Administration calculated international tourist numbers, which he said includes re-entry of foreign nationals already living, studying and working in Taiwan.
The government has set a low bar, considering that Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore all record more than 10 million international visitors each year, he said.
“It would be a national shame if Taiwan cannot have 10 million international tourists per year,” he said.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday condemned Chinese and Russian authorities for escalating regional tensions, citing Chinese warplanes crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line and joint China-Russia military activities breaching South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) over the past two days. A total of 30 Chinese warplanes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Thursday and Friday, entering Taiwan’s northern and southwestern airspace in coordination with 15 naval vessels and three high-altitude balloons, the MAC said in a statement. The Chinese military also carried out another “joint combat readiness patrol” targeting Taiwan on Thursday evening, the MAC said. On
NO RIGHT: After 38 years of martial law under the former KMT government, the KMT is the least qualified to accuse others of harboring such intentions, DPP officials said The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday accused the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) of creating a stir on social media by implying that the government supports martial law, adding that the KMT is the least qualified to criticize others after decades of martial law in Taiwan under the former KMT regime. After South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol late on Tuesday night declared martial law (which was rescinded six hours later), the DPP caucus issued a statement on Thread saying that Taiwan’s legislature was facing a situation similar to that in South Korea, which had prompted Yoon to declare martial law. “The South
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
‘FACT-BASED’: There is no ban, and 2 million Taiwanese have traveled to China this year, which is more than the 285,000 Chinese who visited Taiwan, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday accused China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) of shifting the blame for Beijing’s tourism ban on Taiwan, continuing a war of words that started in the past week. The council’s remark came hours after its Chinese counterpart on Friday accused the government of creating barriers to the resumption of reciprocal group tours across the Taiwan Strait. The TAO accused the MAC of releasing untruthful information and dragging its feet on the tourism sector’s call to establishing ferries linking Pingtung County to China’s Pingtan Island. The MAC failed to respond to overtures to restore direct flights and raised the
RSS