The number of passengers who arrived on cruise ships at maritime ports reached about 900,000 last year, with 35 percent of them being foreign visitors, Taiwan International Ports Corp (TIPC) said on Friday.
Although the number of arrivals was below the pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 1.055 million in 2019, the proportion of foreign visitors has increased, the company said.
In 2019, the number of foreign cruise passengers reached 322,000, which accounted for about 31 percent of the total that year, it said.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan International Ports Corp
In comparison, about 316,000 foreign cruise passengers, or 35 percent of the total, arrived at Taiwan’s maritime ports last year, the company said.
Japanese tourists made up the majority, at 12.2 percent, followed by tourists from the US at 6.7 percent, Germany at 3 percent and South Korea at 2.5 percent.
The Port of Keelung received the most foreign passengers, at 266,000, followed by the Port of Kaohsiung at 35,000.
The cruise ship that brought in the most foreign passengers was the MSC Bellissima, which made port calls between Keelung and Naha, Japan, from January to March last year, and again from November to December, the TIPC said.
The Port of Keelung welcomed 331 visits by international cruise ships and a total of 787,000 passengers, TIPC data showed.
According to the company’s Keelung branch office, the Port of Keelung also saw a significant increase in the number of South Korean tourists last year compared with 2018.
South Korea and Taiwan share similar living standards and are geographically close, offering significant potential for market growth, the office said.
TIPC has already engaged with South Korea’s largest travel agency, Rakuten Travel, twice this year in hopes of continuing cooperation to increase Taiwan-South Korea cruise tourism, the company said.
Looking ahead, TIPC said 572 international cruise ships are expected to visit Taiwan this year, almost a 40 percent rise compared with the 414 port calls last year.
The estimated number of arriving cruise passengers would be about 980,000, representing an approximately 8 percent growth compared with last year, it added.
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