The number of tourist visits to Taiwan may hit 9.5 million this year. That’s the word from Transport Minister Yeh Kuang-shih on Wednesday. Yeh was speaking at a celebration for Sun Yat-sen’s birthday. Sun is considered the founding father of the Republic of China, which moved to Taiwan in 1949.
Yeh Kuang-shih outlined the growth in tourism in recent years. He said in 1976, the number of annual tourist visits hit the 1 million mark for the first time, but the number of annual tourist visits did not reach 4 million until 2009, after President Ma Ying-jeou came to office.
"Since 2009, we’ve surpassed the 4 million mark and the number of tourist visits has been increasing by about 1 million a year," said Yeh. "Last year, we had over 8 million visits. This year, we’ll definitely hit 9 million and probably 9.5 million. This is really an important change," he said.
Yeh also said the growing number of tourist visits also means a new record in the number of people using Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. 24 million traveled through the airport in 2007. This year, there should be over 40 million.
This growth in the number of tourist visits is partially due to an increase in visitors from China. President Ma opened up direct transport links between Taiwan and China and began welcoming Chinese tourists to Taiwan after he came to office in 2008.