Visitors from China may surpass Japanese in 2010

In 2009, the Japanese remains the largest group of foreign visitors. But the number of Japanese visitors fell 7.92 percent in 2009 to 1,000,661. Japanese tourist numbers, however, were down by only 1.76 percent. Chinese nationals were the second largest group of foreign visitors to Taiwan, with 972,123 arrivals, including 606,174 traveling as tourists.

During the nine-day Chinese New Year holiday, more than 40,000 Chinese tourists (about 1,500 tour groups) were scheduled to visit Taiwan, the bureau said last week.

The bureau is also expecting another record number of foreign nationals visiting Taiwan with a target of 4.8 million in 2010, up 9 percent from the 4.4 million foreign visitors last year. 2009 was in itself a record high that surpassed the government target of 4.1 million by 14.3 percent.

The bureau said it will keep focusing on bringing more Japanese visitors to Taiwan this year. It will also try to promote Taiwan as a travel destination to some emerging markets in Southeast Asia.

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