Tensions
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In a particularly tense context with its Chinese neighbour, the island state wishes to relaunch its tourism sector while shining internationally.
While some countries are introducing a tax at the entrance to their territory to fight against mass tourism, the island state of Taiwan is moving in the opposite direction. At the end of February, the Taiwanese government announced that it wanted to pay foreign travelers wishing to discover the island. Concretely, a subsidy of 165 dollars, or nearly 156 euros, will be paid to 500,000 foreign tourists, reports CNN. Groups of tourists may also be paid up to 658 dollars (about 622 euros).
This money will have to be used to cover their expenses on the spot, in particular for accommodation, added the Minister of Transport, Wang Kuo-tsai, specifying that the travelers mainly targeted come from key markets such as Japan, South Korea, China. Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Macau, as well as Europe and America.
The government thus wishes to attract 6 million tourists in 2023, and aims for 10 million by 2025. The country, which lifted its health restrictions barely five months ago, welcomed just under 900,000 visitors in 2022 (compared to 11 million in 2019), according to statistics from the Tourist Office of