Taiwan becomes record-breaking “ 10-million travellers’ destination”

Taiwan joined the rank of Asian countries visited by more than 10 million tourists this in 2015, and people are asking, when will there be another 10 million? Experts in tourism suggests that we shouldn’t quantify Taiwan’s tourism and only focus on the numbers of visitors, if the number increases dramatically, Taiwan would not be able to cope with the number and maintain high quality services; instead, Taiwan should strive to improve tourism quality and make foreign visitor’s stay more pleasant.

The website Business Insider, which has 120 million views listed Taiwan as the sixth mist-visit place in 2016; CNN also ranked Taiwan as the champion of food travel destination. Business Insider’s journalist Anisha Shan travelled around Taiwan, she thinks that Taiwan has a rich variety of tourism resources and Asia’s most interesting cuisine; moreover, she praises Taiwanese as open-minded and friendly, Taiwan is where different cultures live in harmony.

The internationally renowned travel magazine Travel & Leisure recommended Taiwan as one of the 50 must-visit places in 2016, its article gave high praise to Taiwan’s clean and convenient public transportation system, modern art museums, local creative stores and restaurants. It recommends Taiwan as an ideal travel destination that has an incredible range of high quality travel resources for visitors to explore and enjoy.

It took Taiwan 40 years to climb to the NO.9 “Ten-million tourists travel destination”, experts from tourism industry suggest that Taiwanese government should set “Twenty-million tourists” as Taiwan’s next goal, helping Taiwan’s economy grow by attracting more tourists. However, Professor Jialun Chen from the department of Tourism in Shixin University argues that increase in the number of tourist could lead to a decrease in the quality of Taiwan public’s lives and the quality of Taiwan’s tourism services. She believes that 10 million is the balancing number for Taiwan under current circumstances, using Hong Kong as an example, Hong Kong has a population of 7 million, and its annual number of tourists is between 30-40 million, which means that every Hong Kong person has to serve 5 tourists, this imbalance in numbers has affected Hong Kong citizen’s quality of life. Taiwan has a population of 23 million and 10 million tourists, which means that every 2 Taiwanese citizens serve 1 visitor, this can ensure high-quality travel service; if the number of tourists doubles, Taiwanese would have to face fallen quality of life.

Mr. Shen from the Bureau of Tourism and Transportation says that the government should create better travel environment and facilities, more well rounded regulations to attract tourists, instead of focusing on the numbers, Taiwan should improve the quality of its services. Currently, Taiwan has the capacity to serve 12 million tourists, but exceeding this number would affect Taiwan’s overall desirability. Mr. Shen tells our reporter that Taiwan is launching “Smart Travel” to improve its service, new strategies include the creation of multi-media platforms for business owners to upload their information and advertisements, as well as setting up “Ask and Relax station” all over Taiwan for tourists to inquire for information for free, use free Internet service, restrooms and relax space. The goal is to make Taiwan’s precious travel resources more accessible to visitors through technology and to reduce business owners’ costs.

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