More than 646,000 Chinese have made sightseeing trips to Taiwan in the 18 months since the government relaxed regulations on Chinese tourists in July 2008, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday.

Though the number of Chinese tourists has risen steadily, it was expected to grow even more once Taiwan and China swap offices governing tourism and travel affairs, the council said… Between July 2008 and Dec. 31 last year, 26,488 Chinese tour groups — a total of 646,783 people — visited Taiwan, mostly on eight-day, seven-night tours.

With daily individual spending estimated at US$250, the tourists have contributed roughly US$1.13 billion to the economy, the council said.

However, the number of Chinese tourists has not reached the average quota of 3,000 per day.

See also this recent CDT post on mainland visitors to Taiwan over Chinese New Year day.

In related news, Chinese tourists to Japan are also on the rise:

Bilingual sales staff are gaining in popularity, especially those who can speak in Mandarin, as shops in the glitzy Ginza district in Tokyo are eager to attract more Chinese customers during the festive Lunar New Year period.

The shopping belt has leaflets and maps printed for Chinese tourists, more shops are accepting Chinese banking cards and some even offer complimentary gifts for shoppers from China.

The Mitsukoshi department store in Ginza went a step further, opening a whole new area just for Chinese visitors… Tourists from China are on the rise – passing the one million mark – even though overall visitor arrivals fell last year.

© cschultz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chinese tourists, Japan tourism, Taiwan tourism
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Taiwan and China are set to swap tourism offices by the end of the year in yet another sign of warming ties between the former rivals, local media reported Thursday.

Representatives from the Taiwan Strait Tourism Association and China’s Cross-Straits Tourism Exchange Association will meet in Hong Kong soon to finalise the matter, the United Daily News said.

This follows previous negotiations between the two semi-official bodies in July in the southern Chinese territory, the paper said without citing sources.

© Liu Yong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Taiwan relations, Taiwan tourism
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Chinese tourists have generated 764 million US dollars in revenue for Taiwan in a year, as ties rapidly improve between the formal rivals, a report here said Saturday.

Some 370,000 Chinese tourists have visited Taiwan since July 2008, after President Ma Ying-jeou’s Beijing-friendly government trebled the daily quota on mainland visitors to 3,000, said the China Times.

Each mainlander spent an average 295 US dollars daily on a typical trip of approximately a week, bringing in more than 764 million US dollars in total tourism revenue for the island, the report said, citing government data.

© Liu Yong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Taiwan relations, Taiwan tourism
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

To the best of her understanding, Lai said, Chinese authorities and tour operators are most concerned with Taiwan’s maximum capacity to accommodate Chinese tourists and whether the current number of cross-strait flights are enough to meet market demand… During her current visit, Lai said, she will meet with CSTA President Shao Qiwei, who concurrently serves as director of China’s National Tourism Administration, to exchange views on feasible measures to promote steady qualitative and quantitative growth in cross-strait travel.

On travel quality, Lai said her delegation will work with Chinese tourism administrators and tour operators on designing better travel packages to avoid overcrowding at major Taiwanese tourist spots, an issue that has been at the center of complaints by both local travelers and Chinese visitors.

To the best of her understanding, Lai said, Chinese authorities and tour operators are most concerned with Taiwan’s maximum capacity to accommodate Chinese tourists and whether the current number of cross-strait flights are enough to meet market demand… During her current visit, Lai said, she will meet with CSTA President Shao Qiwei, who concurrently serves as director of China’s National Tourism Administration, to exchange views on feasible measures to promote steady qualitative and quantitative growth in cross-strait travel.

PRC citizens have made over 660,000 trips to Taiwan since Taiwan relaxed restrictions in July 2008. Of those trips, over 373,000 were for tourism.

© cschultz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chinese tourists, Taiwan relations, Taiwan tourism
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Taiwan welcomed the first Chinese visitors arriving on direct flights three months ago as a boon for tourism, but global financial troubles and local political uncertainty might deflate such hopes.

Taiwan has severely limited trade and travel with China since the two sides split at the end of a civil war in 1949, but change has been rapid since Beijing-friendly Ma Ying-jeou became president in May.

His government resumed talks with Beijing in June, which led to the launch of regular direct flights and tripling the number of Chinese allowed to visit the island to 3,000 daily the following month.

© Liu Yong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Taiwan relations, Taiwan tourism
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Chinese tourists who have visited Taiwan since July 4 have given an average approval rating of 91 percent to tourism in Taiwan, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) reported yesterday

Although flights run at an 85% capacity, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan has been less than expected by Taiwanese officials. Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that the Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo stated that:

“This could be seen as quite successful, although only between 20 per cent and 30 per cent of the passengers have been Chinese tourists, a ratio lower than the original expectations.

The MOTC believes that the lower expectations are a result of legal and political barriers.

China also has problems with some of Taiwan’s restrictions, Mao went on, such as Taiwan’s requirement that Chinese tourists provide certificates of being either at school, in work or in possession of suitable funds.”

Critics of Ma have been quick, however, to use the lower-than-expected Chinese tourists to highlight the administration’s mishandling of cross-strait relations. Shiue Yih-Chearng writes in an editorial for the Taipei Times:

…direct cross-strait chartered flights have failed to produce the expected tourism boom…

All this has given the impression that political motives are being given far greater weight than economic ones. Failure to propose a visionary economic development blueprint, rising commodity prices, soaring oil prices, rising unemployment, the growing income disparity and the massive stock market losses have forced Ma to admit that his “6-3-3” economic check has bounced and that the targets will not be achieved until 2016.

© jwu for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Cross-Strait relations, cross-straits direct flights, Taiwan tourism
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

They came; they saw; and they planted seeds of hope for improving mutual understanding across the Taiwan Straits.

More than 400 mainland tourists – part of the 750-member inaugural mainland tour group to Taiwan – ended their 10-day tour yesterday, marking a completely successful start for the historic tourism program

[...]

“All of us felt a close connection with people across the Straits, although we have lived apart for such a long time,” mainland tourist Wang Xiuyun said. “What we need most is regular exchanges to develop a better mutual understanding of one another.”

[...]

Local media said the first batch of mainland tourists spent at least 1.3 million U.S. dollars in Taiwan, a helpful contribution to the island’s sagging economy. It is estimated that hosting 3,000 mainland visitors daily would bring in 60 billion Taiwan dollars (1.97 billion dollars) annually.

Previous coverage from the Telegraph.

© Sean Escoffery for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Taiwan relations, Taiwan tourism, tourism
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Chinese visitors to Taiwan will not be allowed to gamble or engage in “pornographic activities,” China’s state news agency reported Sunday.

The warning was issued by the Cross-Strait Tourism Association, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It follows the signing of breakthrough agreements on charter flights and tourism promotion between the rival sides earlier this month.

“Travel agencies are not allowed to arrange gambling, pornographic and drug-related activities, and other activities harming cross-strait relations,” Xinhua said.

© Liu Yong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Taiwan tourism, tourism
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

At his hotel here, a short drive from scenic Sun Moon Lake in central Taiwan, Chang Tse-yen is already making plans for a possible boom in tourism from mainland China.

If officials in Taipei and Beijing agree this summer to increase the number of tourists allowed to visit the island from the mainland, as many here hope, Mr. Chang expects to hire up to 18 more employees.

His hotel, the Cheng Pao, is already a popular stop for Chinese tour groups, but he hopes a new influx will increase occupancy rates above the current 60 percent to 70 percent.

“This is very good,” Mr. Chang said. “If we get more guests, we get more money.”

© Liu Yong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Taiwan relations, Taiwan tourism, tourism
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Chinese tourists were first officially admitted to Taiwan in 2002. But visits are capped at 1,000 a day, and tourists must travel to the island via third locations because of restrictions on direct cross-strait flights.

But if Ma Ying-jeou, the president-elect, has his way, that will change.

Ma, who takes office on May 20, has promised to reach an agreement on more Chinese tourists and weekend cross-strait charter flights by early July, expanding to weekday charters by the end of the year and regularly scheduled flights by summer 2009. All this is part of his election pledge to stimulate the island’s laggard economy with closer cross-strait economic ties.

Under the plan, the cap would be tripled to 3,000 Chinese tourists a day, or more than 1 million per year. Last year, 320,169 mainlanders visited Taiwan, only 81,900 of whom officially came as tourists, according to Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council. The rest were listed as business travelers or “others.”

In a few years, Ma hopes, the cap could rise to 10,000 tourist visits per day. Tourist revenues will have benefits throughout the economy, he says, especially helping lower- and middle-income Taiwanese in the service sector.

© Japhet Weeks for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cross-strait relatioins, Ma Ying-jeou, Taiwan tourism
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall