The number of tourists from Australia, New Zealand and Southeast and South Asian nations in November last year rose 23 percent from a year earlier, which the Cabinet attributed to the government’s “new southbound policy.”
The Cabinet on Friday said that 195,419 tourists came in November last year from the 18 nations targeted by the policy.
The number of tourists from all the nations targeted by the policy, except Nepal, increased in the month, with arrivals from Cambodia, Bangladesh, Thailand and Vietnam increasing by more than 90 percent from a year earlier, the Cabinet said.
From January to November last year, the number of tourists coming from Cambodia rose 85.4 percent annually to 3,111; arrivals from Thailand grew 52.1 percent to 164,021; tourists from Brunei rose 51.2 percent to 3,795; and visitors from India grew 38.2 percent to 30,986, the Cabinet said.
Taiwan welcomed 9.65 million tourists in the same period, up 2.5 percent from a year earlier, it said.
Arrivals from the nations targeted by the policy grew 13.6 percent annually to 1.53 million, the Cabinet said.
The policy seeks to promote relations with Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Australia and New Zealand.
Taiwan is seeking to diversify its tourism sources as the number of Chinese visitors has been falling amid strained relations with Beijing.
Cross-strait ties have cooled since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office in May last year, mainly due to her refusal to recognize the so-called “1992 consensus” as the sole political foundation for cross-strait exchanges.
The “1992 consensus” — a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted making up in 2000 — refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Beijing government that both sides acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
From January last year to Tuesday last week, the number of Chinese tourists declined 18.5 percent annually, with the number of Chinese visitors in tours falling 29.9 percent, according to government figures.
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