While cross-strait tourism remains stalled with no clear timeline for resumption, Taiwan has been shifting its focus toward attracting international visitors from a broader range of countries. During a legislative meeting on Wednesday, Transportation Minister Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) said Taiwan is expanding key tourist markets beyond China and is already seeing promising results.
This was said in response to Legislator Lee Kun-Tse’s (李昆澤) comments during the meeting. Lee pointed out that domestic tourism in Taiwan had returned to pre-pandemic levels last year, but international arrivals remain behind. He said the number of international visitors to Taiwan was only 7.85 million last year, compared to 11.86 million in 2019, showing a recovery rate of just 66.23%.
Lee said Taiwan should not depend on any single country, such as China, for tourism growth. He says the strategy for developing tourism must be based on high-quality travel experiences, establishing regional tourism characteristics and Taiwan’s unique traits, and not being dependent on a single country for tourists.
Transportation Minister Chen acknowledged Lee’s points, saying that the ministry is focusing on developing major tourist regions outside of China. He reports that there was an increase in the number of visitors last year. He says Japanese visitors increased by over 40%, Korean visitors saw an increase of 30 to 40%, and European and American visitors increased by over 20% compared to 2023.
