Reuters
Date: November 4, 2020
By Sally Jensen

ORCHID ISLAND, Taiwan (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – While 2020 will be remembered by many as a year of travel bans and cancelled vacations, the indigenous Tao people of Orchid Island will remember it as the year unprecedented numbers of visitors descended on their once tranquil home.

The small island, 90 km (56 miles) off Taiwan’s southeast coast, is home to approximately 4,700 ethnic Austronesian Tao or Yami people, and has in recent years become a popular holiday destination for both Taiwanese and foreigners alike.

But with bans on international travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year Orchid Island has experienced an unexpected surge in domestic visitors to more than 220,000 – putting a strain on both its natural resources and its inhabitants.

A community whose livelihood revolves around fishing, anthropologists believe the Tao people migrated to Orchid Island from Batan Island in the northern Philippines around 800 years ago.
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