Taiwan Travel Market
Inbound Travel Market
Taiwan received 1.377 million inbound tourists in 2020, a decrease of 88.39% from 2019. Taiwanese tourists made 2,235,564 outbound visits, 86.34% less than in 2019.
In 2020, Japan was the biggest source of inbound visitors to Taiwan, with 269,659 arrivals or 19.57% of the total. The next biggest source markets were South Korea (178,911 visitors, 12.98%) and Hong Kong & Macao with (177,654 visitors, 12.89%). Analyzed according to purpose of travel, "tourism" accounted for 694,187 visits (50.38% of the total), followed by "other" at 490,212 visits (35.58%). Women accounted for 49.83% of all visitors to Taiwan; 20-29 year olds accounted for 25.70% of the total; and the average stay was 8.29 nights.
Due to COVID-19, the distribution of visits by quarter bore no relation to previous years, with 90.62% of the total concentrated in the first quarter. In the first quarter, the average length of stay was 7.56 nights and stays under 90 nights accounted for 85.65% of the total. From the second to fourth quarters, the average length of stay was 35.85 nights, with stays under 90 nights accounting for 26.36% of the total.
Key Indicators of Taiwan's Inbound Tourism Market in 2020
Domestic Travel
Major Indices of Domestic Travel in 2020
- 1.The survey was conducted on citizens aged 12 and above.
- 2.The "※" symbol indicates that the significance level was under 5% and shown by t-test to not be a significant difference.
- 3.The ratio of citizens who took domestic tourism trips refers to the percentage of the whole population who took at least one domestic tourism trip during the whole year.
Visitor Trends at Major Tourism Attractions
As of the end of 2020, Taiwan had 316 major tourism and recreation attractions. This included the addition of eight new attractions and elimination of 18 over the course of the year. Only 60% of attractions experienced an increase in visitors over 2019, and any such increases were minimal due to the impact of the pandemic.
Among the 308 attractions not added or eliminated in 2020, visitor numbers fell at 203 (65.9%), increased at 104 (33.8%), and remained the same at one compared to 2019, indicating a downward trend in visitor numbers at two-thirds of the sites.
Analyzed by attraction type, visitor numbers increased by 8.84% at tourist areas between 2019 and 2020, mainly due to the launch of the Safe Travel subsidy program in July and August of 2020. Free admission to amusement parks for citizens up to high school age drove an 81.5% year-over-year (YoY) increase in visitors to Lihpao Land during the two months of the program. Visitor numbers at forest recreation areas increased by 4.51% YoY in 2020. The gain was attributed to the launch of a Forest Bureau program giving citizens and foreign nationals with residence permits one free admission to any of the 12 national forest recreation areas between July 15 to December 31, 2020. Furthermore, due to COVID-19, locals preferred to visit less-crowded mountain areas. The Tourism Bureau actively launched marketing campaigns under the 2020 Year of Mountain Range Tourism program to increase visitor numbers at forest recreation areas.
Visitor Trends at Major Tourism and Recreation Attractions in Taiwan in 2020
