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Mainland tourists a big boon for Taiwan

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-06-26 18:00

Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan

Analysts expect that in the beginning, 1,000 mainlanders will visit each day, and they believe the number will rise to 3,000 visitors a day by 2009, or about 1.1 million per year.

As for direct charter flights, those are expected to begin on July 4, with 36 direct charter flights each weekend between Taipei and Kaohsiung, and Beijing, Shanghai, Xiamen and Guangzhou.

Similarly, mainland tourism is also set to start very soon, says Ellen Chiu, a tourism analyst at Macquarie Capital Securities in Taiwan, and co-author of the Macquarie report. "I am projecting that it will start in the third quarter of 2008," says Chiu. "The mechanism right now is, without any further negotiation, they could open up to 1,000 tourists a day without doing anything."

The average mainland tour group in Taiwan is expected to have about 30 people, and each group is projected to stay seven to 10 days, with each tourist spending about $250 a day.

Almost every tour will visit Taipei, say analysts, with the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taipei 101 Tower, the Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek memorial halls, and the Shihlin Night Market likely to be on most itineraries.

Among all the businesses in Taiwan, the hotels will gain the most from the expected surge of tourism, says Chiu. "The current data is that 50 percent of the mainland spending will be on hotel bills, so I believe that hotels will benefit more than any other business, and before 2010 hotel rooms may even face a supply shortage," she says.

Boost for Taipei

Apart from hotels, the next-biggest beneficiary is likely to be the Taiwan High-Speed Rail, a state-of-the-art elevated rail that travels at 300 kilometers an hour, and stops at eight cities on the island’s west coast.

Many of the group tours will book seats on the High-Speed Rail, which stops at key attractions such as the Sun Moon Lake and Alishan (a scenic mountain range), and it terminates in the southern city of Kaohsiung, which is popular for its harbor views and its fine seafood.

Taiwan's retail industry will likewise benefit, but also indirectly, say analysts. When mainland tourists began arriving in Hong Kong in huge numbers earlier this decade, the retail sector – particularly shops selling jewelry and electronics – was given an enormous boost.

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