The Tourism Administration yesterday said it aims to increase how much international tourists spend in Taiwan in the next three years.
Last year, the nation welcomed 7.85 million international visitors, despite the negative reports amid Chinese military exercises and a magnitude 7.2 earthquake that devastated Hualien County, it said.
However, that was short of the Tourism Administration’s goal of 10 million.
Photo: Taipei Times
The agency has set the same goal of 10 million for this year.
“That is not the only goal we hope to achieve. We also need to raise the output value generated from tourism,” Tourism Administration Director-General Chou Yung-hui (周永暉) said.
International tourists spend about US$180 per day on average, Chou said.
That figure should increase to US$185 this year, US$190 next year and US$195 in 2027, he said.
“We will discuss with the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Administration of Commerce about supporting measures to reach the goal,” he said.
Taiwanese cuisine should be leveraged to boost the attractiveness of scenic areas, he said, adding that instead of hoodwinking tourists, vendors in scenic areas should do business honestly.
“That does not mean that they must keep prices low. A product can cost a bit more if it is one of a kind and is linked to a special part of Taiwan,” Chou said.
Public transport systems, including airlines, shipping services, the high speed rail, as well as the services of Taiwan Railway Corp, Taiwan Tourist Shuttle Service and Taiwan Tour Bus, should facilitate travel for all tourists, he said.
Artificial intelligence technology should be used to upgrade the tourism industry, Chou said.
With the Taipei International Travel Fair targeting individual travelers, the agency would expand travel fairs for industry operators and to facilitate partnerships, he said.
“We should use theme tours, such as bird-watching and railway tours, to attract European tourists to transit through Taiwan,” Chou said.
The agency is recruiting a contractor to manage the facilities at Dapeng Bay (大鵬灣) in Pingtung County’s Donggang Township (東港), Chou said.
The contractor would manage a racetrack, a dock and a hang gliding area, as well as build a golf course and a water villa resort and operate them before transferring them to the government, he said.
The golf course, once completed, would be the first in Taiwan on the coast, Chou said, adding that it would be expected to attract high-end tourists.
The government is to stop giving subsidies to domestic travelers unless there is a natural disaster, he said.
The government last year spent about NT$1.26 billion (US$38.49 million) in subsidies for people who traveled to Hualien or Taitung counties, which helped boost hotel occupancy in the counties to 50 percent in November after the earthquake on April 3, he said.
The occupancy rate slid to 20 percent when the subsidy program ended last month, agency data showed.
The Executive Yuan is to convene a meeting later this month to address challenges facing Taiwan’s tourism industry, such as shortage of workers in the hotel and accommodation services, Chou said.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
RSS