Taiwan received its ten millionth visitor this year, marking a milestone in the nation’s tourism sector. The lucky visitor is Manuele Christopher, a 34-year-old computer engineer from the United States. He received a warm welcome from tourism bureau staff upon arriving at the airport with his wife Tina at just after 5am on Sunday.
The tourism bureau presented Christopher with a hundred gifts at a press conference later on Sunday.
President Ma spoke at the press conference, about how tourism has grown by nearly a million more arrivals per year almost every year since he first took office almost eight years ago.
Ma recalled visiting Sun Moon Lake in central Taiwan at the beginning of his presidency, and listening to local business owners complain about a lack of tourists. These days, the president said, many businesses in the area are open around the clock.
President Ma said that tourist arrivals in Taiwan could surpass 10.3 million by the end of this year. That’s as compared with 9.91 million tourist arrivals in 2014. The government has set a goal of boosting the number again next year, to 10.75 million visitors.