Taiwan’s tourism industry has indirectly benefited from worsening relations between Japan and South Korea, Taiwan Tourism Development Association vice president Ko Mu-chou (柯牧洲) said, while another industry source said that the effects would be limited.
If Taiwan is able to grasp the opportunity, in addition to the steady growth in visitor arrivals from Japan and South Korea in the second half of the year, it could see arrivals from those two nations increase by an additional 5 percent, Ko said.
Due to reports of violence in Hong Kong, many Japanese student groups that were originally going on exchange trips to Hong Kong have instead come to Taiwan, he said.
However, as the hotel sector is entering its peak season, it might be difficult for hotels to accommodate groups of more than 300, he said.
Many South Korean tour groups have recently changed their destinations from Japan to Taiwan due to the trade dispute between Japan and South Korea, said a travel agent who has worked with Japanese and South Korean clients for several years.
However, the number of groups that have done so has not been as high as expected, primarily because over the past few years Taiwan’s tourism market has not changed, said the agent, who asked not to be named.
Over the past decade, no new attractions have rivalled the National Palace Museum or Taipei 101, the agent said.
While the dispute would benefit the tourism sector in the short term, the long-term effects would still depend on demand and whether Taiwan appeals to travelers, they said.
Without a new “product,” Taiwan cannot attract visitors, the agent said, adding that Japanese and South Korean travelers have options other than Taiwan.
The government should focus on telling visitors what they can do in Taiwan and developing new attractions and infrastructure.
China on Wednesday announced that it was suspending a program that allowed individual tourists from 47 Chinese cities to travel to Taiwan, citing the current state of relations between the two sides.
Chinese nationals may only travel to Taiwan as tourists if they are part of tour groups, the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism said in a statement.
Civil society groups yesterday protested outside the Legislative Yuan, decrying Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) efforts to pass three major bills that they said would seriously harm Taiwan’s democracy, and called to oust KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁). It was the second night of the three-day “Bluebird wintertime action” protests in Taipei, with organizers announcing that 8,000 people attended. Organized by Taiwan Citizen Front, the Economic Democracy Union (EDU) and a coalition of civil groups, about 6,000 people began a demonstration in front of KMT party headquarters in Taipei on Wednesday, organizers said. For the third day, the organizers asked people to assemble
POOR IMPLEMENTATION: Teachers welcomed the suspension, saying that the scheme disrupted school schedules, quality of learning and the milk market A policy to offer free milk to all school-age children nationwide is to be suspended next year due to multiple problems arising from implementation of the policy, the Executive Yuan announced yesterday. The policy was designed to increase the calcium intake of school-age children in Taiwan by drinking milk, as more than 80 percent drink less than 240ml per day. The recommended amount is 480ml. It was also implemented to help Taiwanese dairy farmers counter competition from fresh milk produced in New Zealand, which is to be imported to Taiwan tariff-free next year when the Agreement Between New Zealand and
A woman who allegedly spiked the food and drinks of an Australian man with rat poison, leaving him in intensive care, has been charged with attempted murder, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. The woman, identified by her surname Yang (楊), is accused of repeatedly poisoning Alex Shorey over the course of several months last year to prevent the Australian man from leaving Taiwan, prosecutors said in a statement. Shorey was evacuated back to Australia on May 3 last year after being admitted to intensive care in Taiwan. According to prosecutors, Yang put bromadiolone, a rodenticide that prevents blood from
China is likely to focus on its economy over the next four years and not set a timetable for attempting to annex Taiwan, a researcher at Beijing’s Tsinghua University wrote in an article published in Foreign Affairs magazine on Friday. In the article titled “Why China isn’t scared of Trump: US-Chinese tensions may rise, but his isolationism will help Beijing,” Chinese international studies researcher Yan Xuetong (閻學通) wrote that the US and China are unlikely to go to war over Taiwan in the next four years under US president-elect Donald Trump. While economic and military tensions between the US and China would
RSS