Taiwanese tourists spent 15 times as much money in China as Chinese tourists spent in Taiwan last year, with 3.8 million Taiwanese traveling to China, or 10 times the number of Chinese who visited Taiwan, statistics from both countries showed.
Data from the Tourism Bureau and its Chinese counterpart, the National Tourism Administration, showed that approximately 330,000 Chinese tourists contributed an estimated US$310 million to the nation’s economy last year, while 3.8 million Taiwanese tourists contributed up to US$4.5 billion to China’s foreign-exchange tourism revenues.
If the government reaches a goal of attracting 3,000 Chinese tourists per day by May, an estimated 855,000 Chinese tourists will visit this year. Using the same spending estimate per Chinese tourist, this would amount to US$803 million in revenues.
On March 16, 1,600 Amway (China) employees arrived in Keelung Harbor, the first among the more than 12,000 Amway employees scheduled to visit over the next two months. The visits will generate an estimated NT$600 million (US$17.64 million) in business opportunities.
Taiwanese insurers have also offered tours to China to reward employees, including Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽), Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) and Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽).
Last year, Cathay Life chairman Tsai Hong-tu (蔡宏圖), held a 2,000-member, five-day conference in Beijing.
Shin Kong Life also held a conference in Beijing in 2007, with a total of 1,800 employees attending.
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