President Ma Ying-jeou says Taiwan is expecting to record 9.5 million foreign tourist arrivals in 2014.
Ma made the comments Friday at the opening ceremony of the Taipei International Travel Fair, the largest of its kind in Taiwan.
The president said the number of foreign tourist arrivals topped one million for the first time in 1976, and it took an average of 14 years to see an additional one million arrivals. However, he said since he took office as president in 2008, the number of tourist arrivals has increased by 720,000 per year. Ma also said the number of tourist arrivals this year is likely to surpass last year’s eight million and exceed nine million.
Ma said Taiwan has become one of the world’s top travel destinations because of its beautiful scenery, gourmet food, and friendly people. He also said the government is now promoting medical tourism to Taiwan, and that the quality medical services will definitely attract more international tourists.