Tourists from China to Taiwan as a whole have dwindled since April. Talks between the two sides led to record levels of economic cooperation over the past eight years including a deal in 2008 to allow mainland tourists groups en masse for the first time. Slowing the issue of travel documents to Taiwan now is a type of soft revenge, analysts in Taipei guess.
Group tourist numbers from China to all of Taiwan have declined 30% since May, though independent travelers – a minority of the total – have grown 13%, the Taiwan government’s Mainland Affairs Council says. Arrivals from China hit a record 3.4 million visits last year.
The Mainland Affairs Council won’t link the drop in tourism to Tsai’s lack of talks with China. It cites market conditions and notes a bus fire that killed 26 mainland Chinese tourists in another part of Taiwan July 19.
Tour bus operators and mid-end hotels with enough space for groups are facing the most serious losses. Those hotels tend to be in the bigger cities of Kaohsiung and Taitung, where groups from China start and end their Kenting day trips.
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