Taiwan will offer 500,000 tourists $165 each this year as it tries to shore up its post-pandemic travel industry and boost spending. According to CNN, with its incentive, Taiwan is aiming to welcome six million tourists this year.
The money will be delivered digitally and tourists will be able to use it to cover their costs in Taiwan, including for accommodation, Taiwan’s transport minister Wang Kuo-tsai said on Wednesday. He also added that the measures are aimed at attracting more visitors from key markets including, Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Macao, as well as Europe and America.
Also read | Taiwan says China taking lessons from Russia: ‘They’ll definitely seek…’
The incentives, worth NT$5,000 ($165) each, were announced as part of a NT$5.3 billion package, Bloomberg reported. The spending plan also included a proposal to offer travel agencies NT$10,000 each for groups of at least eight tourists, and NT$20,000 each for groups of at least 15 tourists.
Before the pandemic, tourism accounted for about 4% of Taiwan’s gross domestic product. However, visits came to a near-standstill as Taiwan closed its borders and implemented quarantine rules to contain the virus. Geopolitical tensions have also chilled the industry, as China banned individual tourists traveling to Taiwan in 2019, and last month left it off a list of 20 permitted destinations for Chinese tour groups, a Bloomberg report underlined.
Taiwan has taken some steps to welcome visitors, including reopening its borders to individual travelers from Hong Kong and Macau this month. Taiwan’s campaign comes as others in the region also roll out initiatives to attract tourists. The “Hello Hong Kong” campaign, for example, involves giving out 500,000 air tickets among other perks.
