Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/04/17
By: Wang Cheng-chung and Flor Wang

CNA file photo

Taipei, April 17 (CNA) Thanks to the government’s New Southbound Policy, arrivals from countries in Southeast Asia to Taiwan in 2018 set a new high in terms of both visitor numbers and the percentage of the total arrivals, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) said Wednesday.

Last year, 2.42 million people from Southeast Asian countries visited Taiwan, a 13.8 percent year-on-year growth and accounting for 21.89 percent of the total number of arrivals — both new highs for Taiwan, NIA official Lin Yi-chun (林貽俊) said during a regular news conference.

According to Lin, the top five sources of foreign visitors were China, with 2.66 million of its nationals visiting Taiwan in 2018, followed by Japan with 1.96 million, Hong Kong and Macau with 1.53 million, South Korea with 1.01 million and the United States with 550,000.

Those from Southeast Asian countries comprised 21.89 percent of the total number of visitors to Taiwan last year — an annual increase for the ninth consecutive year, Lin said.    [FULL  STORY]