Taiwan Reports Record-High Arrivals Despite Chinese Travel Ban

(Bloomberg) --

Beijing’s decision to ban individual Chinese tourists from traveling to Taiwan last year wasn’t enough to stop the island from registering a record number of arrivals in 2019, boosted by a surge in visitors from Japan and Korea.

Arrivals rose 7.2% to an all-time high of 11.9 million last year, according to data from Taiwan’s Tourism Bureau. The main contributors to the increase were a 21.9% jump in Korean visitors and a 10.1% rise in those from Japan.

After strong increases at the beginning of the year, the number of mainland Chinese visitors plummeted in the second half of the year after China imposed a travel ban for individual tourists from August.

Chinese arrivals nosedived 55.3% in December, the biggest fall since Taiwan eased the rules to granting mainland tourists access in 2008. Despite the decrease, China remained Taiwan’s largest source of visitors last year.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.