Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday forecast that international tourists coming to Taiwan would grow by 7 percent this year.
Lin made the remarks at the four-day Taipei International Travel Fair, which began yesterday.
Lin said his ministry expected the total number of tourists visiting Taiwan to grow to 11.8 million by the end of next month, 7 percent more compared to last year.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The Tourism Bureau is to be upgraded to the Tourism Administration and plans to convene a nationwide tourism symposium at the end of the year.
The bureau would soon release its 2030 Tourism White Paper, he added.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who also took part in the opening ceremony, said Taiwanese tourism quality is on the rise despite challenges this year.
“We have succeeded in pushing into more a more diverse market for international tourism and have made our tourism system all the more sustainable,” she said. “While the focus this year has been on township tourism, we are looking forward to next year where the focus will be on mountain-climbing and tourism,” she added.
Taiwan Visitors Association Director Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭) said the fair would highlight Taiwan as a desirable location to visit, adding that her association would continue promoting Taiwanese tourism globally.
“We hope to let others behold how attractive Taiwanese scenery is and encourage them to come and visit,” Yeh said.
According to the event organizer, there are about 1,700 booths from 60 countries at the fair, which ends on Monday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center.
The fair, the largest of its kind in Taiwan, features South Korean and Japanese tourism operators as well, because of growing local interest in travel to those countries.
Meanwhile, at the fair yesterday, Taiwan’s Tourism Bureau promoted mountain tourism.
The bureau is focusing on five north-south mountain ranges — the Central Mountain Range, Yushan (玉山), Hsuehshan (雪山), Alishan (阿里山) and the Coastal Mountain range — in its pavilion at the fair, bureau Deputy Director-General Chang Shi-chung (張錫聰) said.
There would be various exhibitions and forums on the mountains of Taiwan, as well as information about unique cultural features such as historic trails and Aboriginal communities, Chang said.
Taiwan is preparing to market next year as the “Year of Mountain Tourism” after it positioned the nation as an important international mountaineering destination in July, when the government allowed public access to national parks.
Previously, people who visited restricted ecological protected areas in Taiwan’s national parks had to apply for permits from both the National Police Agency and the Construction and Planning Agency.
However, the Construction and Planning Agency has launched a new mountain permit application portal that requires mountain visitors to apply for only one permit and provides fast-track processing, the bureau said.
Much of Taiwan is covered by mountains, and it has 268 mountains higher than 3,000m, the Bureau Web site showed.
The number of permits issued to Taiwanese and foreign nationals for access to trails in Yushan, Taroko and Shei Pa national parks has risen from 153,736 in 2016 to 187,053 in 2017 and 201,526 last year, according to Construction and Planning Agency figures, adding that last year, foreign nationals accounted for about 7.24 percent of the permits issued.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to