Taipei, Oct. 20 (CNA) Japanese tourists are successively arriving in Taiwan from Oct. 19-21 for a travel promotion program, the Tourism Administration said Friday.
The administration collaborated with the Japan Travel Agents Association to launch the program, in which participants can choose from a variety of itineraries, with visits to different Taiwanese cities and attractions included.
According to the administration, the program has successfully attracted approximately 1,000 Japanese tourists, and a sky lantern release activity taking place from Oct. 21-22 in New Taipei’s Pingxi District — where people can write their wishes on paper lanterns, then release them to the sky for their prayers to be answered — is one of the most popular among the tourists.
Some other attractions include Yehliu Geopark, also in New Taipei, and Sun Moon Lake in Nantou County, said the administration.
To boost Japanese visitor arrivals, in addition to the travel promotion program, it has also named Japanese actress Haruna Kawaguchi as its tourism ambassador this year and filmed promotional videos, as well as put ads in several transport hubs in Japan.
The administration pointed out that due to several reasons including yen depreciation and the Japanese government giving out subsidies for domestic travel, the number of Japanese people traveling abroad between January to July this year accounted for only 40 percent of that in 2019.
It added that around 490,000 Japanese tourists visited Taiwan between January and August this year, which accounted for around 37 percent of the number of tourists from Japan visiting during the same time period in 2019.
The administration also said it is working with different Japanese travel agencies on launching new tourist attractions to make traveling to Taiwan more appealing.
