Taiwan's Tourist Arrivals Surge 29.1% in First 2 Months of 2014
2014/05/06 | By Judy LiTaiwan hosted 1.42 million international tourist arrivals in the first two months of this year, up 29.1% year on year, according to the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting & Statistics (DGBAS) quoting the statistics compiled by Tourism Bureau.
During the period, China led as the biggest source of Taiwan's international tourists with 570,000 arrivals, up a sizable 38.5% year-on-year, followed by Japan at 250,000 arrivals for a 17.4% YoY rise.
It's noteworthy that nearly 110,000 South Korean tourists came to Taiwan in the same period for a whopping annual rise of 96.7%, the highest growth among international tourists.
In Jan.-Feb., Chinese mainlanders took the lion's share of 40% of Taiwan's international tourist segment, which will exceed 50% if taking account of those from Hong Kong and Macao.
In the same period, the number of Taiwan's outbound travelers grew 5.6% from a year earlier to 1.82 million, of which 480,000 went to China and 410,000 to Japan, which surged nearly 40% from that of last year mainly because of the cheaper Japanese yen.
Thailand used to be a popular place for Taiwanese tourists, whose number dropped 24.7% during the period due to the unstable political situation there. (JL)
| Taiwan's Tourist Arrivals in First 2 Months of 2014 | ||
| Country
| No. of arrivals
| Annual growth (%)
|
| China
| 570,000
| 38.5
|
| Japan
| 249,000
| 17.4
|
| Hong Kong & Macao
| 169,000
| 20.7
|
| South Korea
| 109,000
| 96.7
|
| U.S.
| 64,000
| 11.1
|
| Europe
| 39,000
| 28.5
|