Transportation Minister Ho Chen Tan says that the number of tourists visiting Taiwan this year could surpass ten million. He was speaking Wednesday at a conference held to discuss ways of promoting Taiwan’s tourism industry over the next ten years.
The conference comes at a difficult time for the tourism industry. Cross-strait politics and a deadly tour bus fire in July have led to a sharp drop in the number of Mainland Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan.
The transportation minister said the government expects that 600,000 fewer Mainland Chinese tourists will visit Taiwan this year. But he said this slump will eventually end, and tourists from other neighbors like South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, and Thailand are picking up the slack. The transportation minister said that tourism revenues are expected to grow by around 3% this year, bringing in a projected NT$500 billion (US$16 billion).
He urged tour operators not to look at what he called a temporary decrease in Mainland tourists as a sign of trouble for the entire tourism industry. He also promised to work with local governments in areas hit hard by the drop in Mainland tourism to return conditions back to normal.