The number of foreign visitors to the nation last month rose about 2 percent from a year earlier, reversing a decline recorded in the previous three months, the Tourism Bureau said on Friday.
The number of foreign visitors totaled 926,813 last month, up 1.81 percent from a year earlier, the bureau said.
That compares positively with a decline in the January-to-March period, when the number of foreign arrivals fell 9.99 percent annually.
The rebound in foreign arrivals was in part caused by a sharp increase in the number of visitors from Hong Kong, reaching 190,785, an increase of 110,716 people, or 72.32 percent, from a year earlier, the bureau said.
The increase was attributed to a holiday late last month, the bureau said, adding that the government has also introduced incentives to attract visitors from Hong Kong, such as offering one free airfare for every three tickets purchased to Taiwan.
The number of visitors from South Korea and Southeast Asia also rose, the bureau said.
The number of South Korean visitors totaled 84,249, an increase of more than 20,000, or 34.44 percent, from a year earlier, while the number of visitors from Vietnam soared 151.6 percent from last year to about 30,000, the bureau said.
The number of visitors from Thailand and the Philippines doubled, increasing by more than 10,000 visitors from a year earlier, the bureau said.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government last year launched its “new southbound policy” that seeks closer ties with ASEAN members, as well as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Australia and New Zealand, to reduce economic dependence on China.
The government has granted visa-free travel to people from Thailand and Myanmar, while giving conditional visa-free privileges to visitors from the Philippines.
The number of Japanese visitors last month fell 2.13 percent from a year earlier to 126,712, as a weaker yen dampened interest in overseas travel, the bureau said.
Although the number of Chinese visitors last month fell 42.97 percent from the previous year to 214,196, they remained the largest group of foreigners visiting Taiwan, the bureau said.
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday appealed to the authorities to release former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) from pretrial detention amid conflicting reports about his health. The TPP at a news conference on Thursday said that Ko should be released to a hospital for treatment, adding that he has blood in his urine and had spells of pain and nausea followed by vomiting over the past three months. Hsieh Yen-yau (謝炎堯), a retired professor of internal medicine and Ko’s former teacher, said that Ko’s symptoms aligned with gallstones, kidney inflammation and potentially dangerous heart conditions. Ko, charged with