KUALA LUMPUR - Taiwan is aiming to attract 9.4 million international visitors this year, building on last year’s progress in diversifying its inbound tourism markets, the Tourism Administration said yesterday.

The island recorded about 8.57 million overseas arrivals last year, equivalent to 72.3 per cent of pre-Covid-19 levels, while outbound travel surged to around 18.94 million trips, surpassing the pre-pandemic figure of 17.1 million.

As a result, Taiwan posted an estimated tourism revenue deficit of about NT$700.9 billion, as reported by Taipei Times.

Tourism Administration director-general Chen Yu-hsiu said the government was confident of meeting its visitor targets this year.

“We think 9.3 million to 9.4 million would be a relatively achievable goal for us. It would take some serious efforts to reach 9.5 million,” she said.

Chen said international arrivals rose by 11 to 12 per cent last month, driven largely by visitors from Europe, North America and Southeast Asia, following efforts to broaden source markets.

“In the past, we relied heavily on tourists from a single country, but the situation has changed. We are seeing more tourists from Europe and North America, who tend to stay longer.

“We have also seen a rapid increase in the number of Filipino tourists, as well as more group travellers from Vietnam. We are also making progress in terms of tourists from India, New Zealand and Australia,” she said, adding that Taiwan’s inbound tourism market was undergoing a structural shift.

Meanwhile, Taoyuan International Airport Corp expects more than 160,000 passengers to pass through the country’s main gateway daily during the Lunar New Year holiday, which begins on Saturday.

As of January 30, the average hotel occupancy rate nationwide stood at about 43.03 per cent for the nine-day festive period.

Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai said both domestic and international travel had shown steady growth over the past two years, with local tourists making around 220 million trips last year.

“We also aim to strengthen and upgrade the industry’s fundamentals, so that domestic and international visitors can enjoy a higher-quality experience in Taiwan, while also creating greater value across the country’s tourism sector,” he said.

Plans to introduce incentives to boost domestic tourism, including birthday-linked accommodation vouchers and weekday travel subsidies, have been temporarily suspended pending legislative approval of the national budget.

“We hope that lawmakers would quickly approve our budget plan, as we need to promote tourism to Taiwan. People are also looking forward to incentives for domestic travel,” Chen said.

The Tourism Administration said domestic travel incentives could be rolled out between April and June if the budget is approved next month, adding that preparatory work for the scheme has been completed.