Taiwan shifts focus as Chinese group arrivals plunge

yong-kang-street-night-market
Yong kang Street in Taipei

Though Chinese groups heading to Taiwan have plunged, overall arrivals there have risen due to growth from other source markets, according to C.T Su, chairman of the Taipei International Travel Fair (ITF Taipei), which held its annual trade and consumer show earlier this month.

Total visitor arrivals in Taiwan for the first three quarters of 2016 reached nearly 8 million, up 4.8 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Su explained: “The Mainland Chinese market is estimated to drop 800,000 this year though we welcomed four million of them in 2015. But markets like South-east Asia, the US, South Korea and Hong Kong performed well with positive growth. As far as I know, only group tours are affected. Chinese FIT traffic has kept growing.

“What we can do is to focus more on promoting in South-east Asia. The Taiwanese government has added Thailand to its visa waiver programme since August to allow 30-day visa-free stays and the Philippines will be getting e-visa facilities. This really helped.”

Kathy Yuan, international affairs division section chief of the Taiwan Tourism Bureau, confirms Su’s observation. “Since August, visitor numbers from Thailand has started to rise steadily… previously, our visa application procedure was quite stringent and required proofing documents.”

Easing of Taiwanese visa requirements and procedures were also made in the South-east Asian nations of Myanmar and Cambodia earlier this year.

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