Australian VA to Taiwan passes the 50,000 mark

Australian VA to Taiwan passes the 50,000 mark

Setting a new record for Australian visitor arrivals to Taiwan, more than 50,000 Australians visited the destination for the 10-month period January-October 2012 according to figures released by the Taiwan Tourism Bureau this week.

The figure represents a 5.56 per cent increase over the 49,765 total achieved for the same period in 2011.

The new record was helped along by the more than 6,600 Australians visiting the destination in October.

TTB Marketing Representative Australia & New Zealand, Ms Pearl Lee attributed the growth in part towards the ease with which the destination can now be reached on a direct basis with both China Airlines and Eva Airways offering a total of eight direct weekly services from Sydney and Brisbane.

China Airlines' recently inaugurated Auckland-Sydney-Taipei service, which builds on the carrier's Auckland-Brisbane-Taipei routing, has also helped boost the number of New Zealanders visiting the destination with more than 8,248 Kiwis travelling to Taiwan for the 10 month period, a 13.26 per cent increase over the 7,303 total achieved for the same period in 2011.

Taiwan is currently experiencing a tourism boom with close on six million overseas visitors recorded for the January-October period.

The 5,937,265 total represents a 23.19 per cent increase over the 4,819,547 figure recorded for the same period in 2011 and has kept Taiwan firmly on track to welcome seven million visitors by the end of this year.

Speaking at the National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism this week, Taiwan's President, Ma Ying-jeou said, based on the number of tourists visiting the destination over the last three years, it was highly possible Taiwan could be welcoming more than 10 million visitor arrivals by 2016.

President Ma pointed towards the growth in the number of international visitation since 2007 which has risen from 3.8 million to reach six million by the close of 2011.

"The speed of that growth is unprecedented and is evidence that Taiwan is a potential tourist hot spot," President Ma said.