The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) is to continue to promote tourism to transit passengers at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport by offering a limited number of guided group tours to the Taoyuan Lantern Festival in February, it said today.
The Taoyuan airport last year received a record number of transit passengers at 6.37 million, constituting 12.5 percent of all passenger traffic, the ministry said.
The Legislative Yuan’s Transportation Committee invited the ministry to give a specified report on how to travel experiences for transit passengers.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
According to the report, pre-COVID-19-pandemic arrivals to Taoyuan airport were 48.7 million, with 5.65 million transit and layover passengers constituting about 10 percent.
However, once national lockdowns were lifted last year, transit and layover passengers increased by 13 percent from pre-pandemic levels, comprising 12.5 percent of overall passenger volume, the ministry said.
The highest percentage of transit passengers last year were from North America, at 39.8 percent, followed by Southeast Asia and South Asia at 36.9 percent and East Asia at 7.1 percent, showing the importance of the Taoyuan airport as an international transport hub for passengers traveling between North America and Southeast Asia, it said.
The Tourism Administration has previously targeted passengers with a layover in Taiwan between seven and 24 hours and holding visas or visa exemptions for half-day tourism packages.
It offers four-hour guided group tours to Taipei, Taoyuan or New Taipei City, as well as Taoyuan Metro tickets and travel recommendations to independent tourists, the MOTC said.
From May last year until last month, 14,692 international transfer passengers utilized the scheme, with 60 percent, or 8,807 passengers, choosing group tours and 40 percent, or 5,885 passengers, choosing independent travel, it said, adding that most came from the US, Canada, the Philippines, Germany and Australia.
Special day and night tours would also be offered for transit passengers to visit the Taoyuan Lantern Festival next year, personalized according to their schedules.
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