Liu Hsi-lin, chief of the bureau's international section, said that 2008 is the last year for the implementation of "Tourists Double" plan launched in 2001, and the annual goal of 4 million tourist arrivals for the year can be easily accomplished.

Liu based his optimism on the fact that the one millionth inbound tourist for this year arrived in Taipei yesterday, some 10 days earlier than the past years.

The Tourism Bureau granted a special welcome to the one millionth inbound tourist, a Japanese man aged 40, at the Taoyuan International Airport.

In 2008, the number of tourist arrivals, as of yesterday, posted an annual growth of 14.29%, twice the target growth of 7 percent.

Of the inbound tourists so far this year, those from South Korea recorded the highest annual increase of 42%, followed by a 35% gain for those from Hong Kong and Macao, and a 27% surge for tourists from Malaysia.

Given the sharp growth, the number of inbound tourists is expected to not only exceed the historical high of 3.72 million recorded in 2007, but also break the 4 million mark to hit a new high this year, according to the Tourism Bureau.

After Ma Ying-jeou is sworn in as new president on May 20, the new government is expected to step up liberalizing entry of mainland Chinese tourists. This is expected to significantly vitalize Taiwan's tourism sector, with enterprises busy building new tourist hotels and setting up new travel agencies.

In fact, Taiwan's agro-tourism in the form of leisure farms is attracting increasing numbers of foreign visitors, especially from Singapore, and has won much praise in the area of service, an official of the Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday.

To help transform the farming sector into a service industry, the government is trying to develop agro-tourism, which gives tourists a taste of life in the Taiwanese countryside and its produce, along with human interest in the form of the farmers themselves, the COA official said.

The COA began promoting Taiwan's agro-tourism in Singapore in 2005, participating in travel exhibitions, organizing press conferences and collaborating with local tour operators.

The official said Southeast Asia and Hong Kong are the target areas for the promotion plan as they have in general similar languages, diet preferences and cultural backgrounds to Taiwan. He added that Singapore, with a population that is 75 percent of Chinese descent, is one of the countries from which Taiwanese leisure farm operators are particularly keen to attract tourists.

The Singapore promotion led to a growth rate of 50.68 percent in the number of Singaporean tourists visiting leisure farms in Taiwan, representing an increase from 10,139 people in 2006 to 15,278 in 2007.

Analyzing the success of agro-tourism in attracting Singaporeans, the official said it might be because the city state lacks its own land, agricultural production, rural ecosystem and rural culture.

Statistics compiled by the Taiwan Leisure Farming Development Association show that there are more than 100 establishments involved in the leisure agricultural industry around the country.



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