Taiwan’s Outbound Travel Market
In 2019, Taiwanese citizens made 17,101,335 trips abroad, up 456,651 trips (2.74%) from the year before. Asia was the main destination, accounting for 15,757,473 trips, or 92.14% of the total, followed by the Americas with 676,520 trips (3.96%), Europe with 363,583 trips (2.13%), Oceania with 228,135 trips (1.33%), Africa with 27 trips, and other regions 75,597 trips.
Japan was the first destination of choice, attracting 4,911,681 Taiwanese visitors, followed by Mainland China (4,043,686 trips), Hong Kong (1,676,374), South Korea (1,209,062), and Vietnam (853,257).
According to the findings of the "2019 Survey of Travel by ROC Citizens," Japan attracted the greatest share of visitors from Taiwan in 2019 (33.70%), followed by Mainland China (21.90%), South Korea (8.30%), Europe (7.80%), Vietnam (4.70%), Thailand (4.20%), Hong Kong (3.60%), and the US (3.60%).
The biggest share of overseas trips in the year were arranged entirely independently without using a travel agent (45.00%), followed by travel arranged as group trips or incentive trips (35.00%), travel arranged partly through travel agents (15.00%), and purchases of independent travel or flight + hotel packages (5.00%).
The main purpose of citizens’ overseas travel in 2018 was tourism. The main reasons for going abroad for tourism were the invitation of relatives or friends, curiosity, the wish to experience the way of life in a different country, and to relax.
In 2019, ROC citizens spent an average of NT$47,802 per person per trip overseas (down 1.50%). Annual spending on overseas travel for the year totaled an estimated at NT$817.5 billion (up 1.21%).
Major Indices of Taiwan Citizens’ Outbound Travel
- 1.Source of data for "total number of overseas visits by ROC citizens" and "average length of stay (nights)": National Immigration Agency, Ministry of the Interior.
- 2."※" This symbol indicates that the significance level was under 5% and shown by t-test to not be a significant difference.
- 3.The percentage of citizens who traveled abroad measures the percentage of Taiwanese citizens who took at least one outbound trip during the year.
- 4.The average number of outbound trips per person = total number of outbound trips divided by the total population.
- 5.Average expenditure per person per trip includes international flight ticket fees, visa fees, hotel bills, and all overseas expenditures, but excludes expenses prior to departure and after returning home.
