Domestic travel during the Lunar New Year holiday more than doubled from last year, thanks to favorable weather and a strong economy, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) said.
Average daily visits to tourist attractions reached 730,000 over the holiday, up 109 percent from 350,000 per day last year, Chen told the Ministry of Transportation and Communications’ Lunar New Year gathering.
He also thanked staff for their efforts in managing holiday transportation operations, adding that public satisfaction was high.
Photo Courtesy of Kaohsiung City Government’s Tourism Bureau
From Tuesday last week to Sunday, national scenic areas recorded 3.87 million visits, averaging 645,314 per day — a 125 percent increase from last year’s daily average of 286,765. Visits peaked on Thursday with a total of 843,096 visits in a single day.
Theme parks, a popular choice for families, attracted 526,372 visitors over the same six-day period, averaging 87,729 per day — up 32 percent from a year earlier. Daily attendance exceeded 100,000 on Thursday and Friday.
Travel demand was highest between Tuesday and Friday, when more than 2.98 million visits were logged — more than two-thirds of the six-day total, the Tourism Administration said.
On the final day of the holiday, about 300,000 people were still traveling, reflecting increasingly flexible travel patterns, it added.
Mountain and coastal destinations, such as Alishan, northern coastal scenic areas, Sun Moon Lake and the Yunlin-Chiayi-Tainan region, saw strong crowds, the agency said.
Many visitors opted for mountain trails, seaside landscapes and historic old streets, providing a boost to local businesses and related industries, it said.
“With Taiwan’s economy performing well, both international and domestic travel were brisk over the holiday,” Chen said, adding that rail services handled a total of 9 million passenger trips during the period.
Although he did not take a vacation himself, Chen said he made one round trip on the Taiwan High Speed Rail and drove on freeways between Taichung and Taipei twice.
Traffic felt heavier than usual due to the extended holiday and heavy travel demand, but congestion did not last long and remained within acceptable limits, he said.
“Transportation is not built on the minister’s expertise alone, but on the professionalism of everyone,” Chen said, thanking ministry personnel for their efforts.
He also expressed hope that travelers feel tangible improvements in traffic safety and convenience.
At Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, passenger volume reached 169,000 on Feb. 14, setting a new single-day record for Taiwan’s airports and surpassing pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels. On the final day of the holiday, the airport handled 162,000 passengers, close to its pre-pandemic high.
Despite challenges, such as heavy fog in some areas, the Civil Aviation Administration and the Maritime and Port Bureau promptly activated contingency transport plans to ensure travelers were able to return to work smoothly, Chen said.
He also credited the Central Weather Administration for providing accurate daily forecasts, which helped travelers plan ahead and contributed to the surge in domestic tourism.
The Grand Hotel Taipei on Saturday confirmed that its information system had been illegally accessed and expressed its deepest apologies for the concern it has caused its customers, adding that the issue is being investigated by the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau. The hotel said that on Tuesday last week, it had discovered an external illegal intrusion into its information system. An initial digital forensic investigation confirmed that parts of the system had been accessed, it said, adding that the possibility that some customer data were stolen and leaked could not be ruled out. The actual scope and content of the affected data
DO THEY BITE IT? Cats have better memories than people might think, but their motivation is based entirely around the chance of getting fed Cats can remember the identity of the people who fed them the day before, Taipei-based veterinarians said on Friday, debunking a popular myth that cats have a short memory. If a stray does not recognize the person who fed them the previous day, it is likely because they are not carrying food and the cat has no reason to recognize them, said Wu Chou Animal Hospital head Chen Chen-huan (陳震寰). “When cats come to a human bearing food, it is coming for the food, not the person,” he said. “The food is the key.” Since the cat’s attention is on the food, it
A New York-based NGO has launched a global initiative to rename the nation’s overseas missions, most of which operate under the name "Taipei," to "Taiwan Representative Office (TRO)," according to a news release. Ming Chiang (江明信), CEO of Hello Taiwan, announced the campaign at a news conference in Berlin on Monday, coinciding with the World Forum held from Monday through Wednesday, the institution stated in the release. Speaking at the event, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Jie (黃捷) said she believed this renaming campaign would enable the international community to see Taiwan
TOO DANGEROUS: The families agreed to suspend crewed recovery efforts that could put rescuers in danger from volcanic gases and unstable terrain The bodies of two Taiwanese tourists and a Japanese pilot have been located inside a volcanic crater, Japanese authorities said yesterday, nearly a month after a sightseeing helicopter crashed during a flight over southwestern Japan. Drone footage taken at the site showed three bodies near the wreckage of the aircraft inside a crater on Mount Aso in Kumamoto Prefecture, police and fire officials said. The helicopter went missing on Jan. 20 and was later found on a steep slope inside the Nakadake No. 1 Crater, about 50m below the rim. Authorities said that conditions at the site made survival highly unlikely, and ruled
RSS