The picture shows the Taitung Zhiben Hot Spring Area, and the parking lot of the tour bus is empty. (Photo source: Taiwan's China Times)
According to Taiwan's China Times, mainland tourists do not travel to Taiwan, so the county and city mayors simply take the initiative to attract tourists. How serious is the tourism loss? Hualien, which is based on tourism, has the number of visitors to the Taroko Park in during the summer vacation hit a record low in previous years; the performance of Taitung hotels has dropped sharply to 80%, and the industry described the tragic situation as "sading in the fields". According to statistics from the New Taipei City Government, from May to July alone, it is estimated that the loss will be at least 200 million yuan (NT$, the same below); Nantou hotels, homestays, catering and yacht industries are complaining.
Hualien, Taiwan established a county by tourism. After the political party rotation on May 20, the number of mainland tourists traveling to Taiwan dropped sharply, which affected Hualien's arts industry, transportation industry and catering industry to become three major "miserable" industries. The biggest influence is Hualien Arts Store. Small arts stores have closed down one after another, reaching only 20% of the peak period. A jade sales lecturer named Xu, who has resigned, said that after the political party rotates, there have been more than 40 regiments every day since the heyday of the mainland generation to only 1 to 3 regiments every day. He is afraid of having to resign and make another way to make a living.
Taitung hotel operators said that in the past, mainland tourists who came to Taitung used to have 6 to 7,000 passengers a day, and each hotel could sell about 3,500 rooms in one day. After the mainland tourists were frozen, they sold 3,000 rooms less, and their performance dropped sharply to 80%; in the past, the parking lot of Zhiben Hot Springs District was full of tour buses, but now there are no doors, so how can hotel operators survive?
He said that the coral operators in Taitung specialize in mainland tourist groups are also miserable, with only 10% or 20% of the customers remaining. It is expected that there will be a wave of bankruptcies at the end of the year, followed by an unemployment wave, and the losses are difficult to estimate.
新北市指出，今年1到7月大陆团客207万4689人，虽然相较去年同期，减幅只有4%，如按月计算，5月以前陆客人数创新高，但5月以后来台人数如溜滑梯下降，较去年减幅约3成5，人数约16万人，以6成到新北而言，足足少10万人左右团客。
New Taipei City Government pointed out that it is difficult to estimate the specific losses, but New Taipei is a "major disaster area". For example, Yeliu merchants said that tourists have dropped by more than 70%. In these three months alone, New Taipei's tourism losses are estimated to exceed 200 million yuan.
Nantou County Mayor Lin Mingzhen said that the number of tourists born in the 520s to visit Taiwan has rapidly shrunk, and the hotel, homestay, catering, and yacht industries have been complaining. Even the Meizimeng Factory operators of the Farmers Association, which have always been booming, have repeatedly reported, "County Magistrate, what should I do now?" He decided to come to the mainland for consultation in person.
Miaoli County Culture and Tourism Bureau Qiu Pengxin pointed out that Miaoli is not a concentrated tourist area for mainland tourists, and the impact level is relatively small. However, County Mayor Xu Yaochang strongly promoted Nanzhuang and Sanyi Shuang International Slow City, and it is urgent to attract mainland tourists. (China Taiwan Network Lu Jiajing)
