TAIWAN. The number of Taiwan’s tourist arrivals in the first five months of the year fell -7.19% from the 2002 level to 1.1 million, said a spokesperson for the country’s Tourism Bureau under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
The official said that this year’s figures were compared with the 2002 figures of the same period since the 2003 numbers were “anomalous because of the impact of SARS on global travel”.
Increasing international terrorist acts, the SARS comeback in March in mainland China and the outbreaks of avian flu across Asia Pacific affected this year’s figures.
The number of tourists from key markets such as Japan, Hong Kong, Macau and the US dropped in that period. However, the country received more tourists from South Korea and Malaysia in the January-May period.
Vice Premier Yeh Chu-lan has now instructed the relevant authorities to promote local festivals to tourists. Taiwan has recently developed a six-year national plan, “Challenge 2008”, in its aim to double the number of foreign tourists by that year.
MORE ON TOURISM IN TAIWAN
Taiwan on a mission to boost Japanese visitor numbers- 09/02/04
