Tourists flock to Taiwan in record numbers despite drop from mainland China
- Island attracts more visitors from countries targeted by regional drive
- Authorities to tighten entry for people from six Asian nations after more than 150 Vietnamese tourists go missing
Taiwan welcomed its 11 millionth visitor of the year on Sunday, a record for the self-ruled island as tourists from across Asia made up for a sharp fall in arrivals from mainland China.
But Taipei also said it would review a scheme to increase visitors from Southeast Asia after more than 150 Vietnamese went missing on a tour of the island earlier this month.
According to data released by the Taiwan Tourism Bureau, the mainland remained the top source of tourists by the end of November, with 2.46 million people making the trip across the Taiwan Strait.
That was almost half the 4.1 million visitors from the mainland in 2015 under the Beijing-friendly administration of president Ma Ying-jeou but the island’s tourist numbers were bolstered by a sharp increase in visitors from countries targeted by the “New Southbound Policy” adopted by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party.
The policy aims to shift the island’s heavy trade reliance on the mainland to 18 countries, including those in Southeast Asia, India, Australia and New Zealand.
The bureau said more than 2.3 million visitors from the policy’s targeted countries visited the island this year – up more than 15 per cent from last year. In all, 1.49 million people visited from Hong Kong, 1.77 million from Japan, 910,175 from South Korea, and 518,154 from the United States.