The number of Mainland Chinese tourist groups to Taiwan is growing continuously. To meet the ongoing increase of business opportunities in tourism, the Tainan tourism industry is planning to develop new sightseeing spots, hoping to change the way Mainland tourist groups visit: instead of sparing a cursory glance at selected famous monuments, more time can be spent joining a ‘walking party’, exploring local industries on foot such as the beehive fireworks in Yanshuei, the mango season, as well as the cultural creation and features hidden in small alleys.

Statistics from the Tourism Bureau of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications shows that the number of Mainland tourists to Taiwan has reached 2.87 million last year. Mainland tourists surged during Chinese New Year’s holiday this year; the tourism industry generally has an optimistic view on its implication to business opportunities for cross-strait tourism.

According to Chi-Yuan Wang, Chairman of the Tainan Association of Travel Agents, at present the Mainland tourist groups almost solely focus on famous tourist attractions, such as Chihkan Tower, Anping Fort and other monuments, and schedule about 3 to 4 hours. As a result, only the tourist spots and the surrounding food or artifact vendors are visited. If the tour aims to create local business opportunities, its itinerary needs more variety and wider coverage.

He states that hotels in Taiwan have actually been expanding all the time; tour buses are plentiful and enough to accommodate 6,000 people a day. In response to the trend in international tourism that combines tours with industrial culture, the Association has recently discussed plans for developing new itineraries, integrating them with seasonal events such as Yanshuei’s beehive fireworks and the fruit industry, as well as promoting gourmet snack foods and Tainan’s cultural and creative industries to attract a wider pool of Mainland tourist groups, and even return guests that have visited Taiwan before.

Nowadays many Taiwanese tourists to Japan or Southeast Asia have moved from visiting tourist attractions as before, to further exploring various locations to seek exotic foods and goods in the alleys and experience industrial culture. Not only the tourism industry, but also city and county governments should work together to think of how to bring tourists to every corner of Taiwan, in order to promote business opportunities for industries everywhere.

Chairman of Tainan City Tour Association, Yi-Fong You, says that in recent years, there is hardly any vacancy in five-star hotels during successive holidays; for the New Year's Eve holiday, most hotels have almost sold out their rooms as early as one month in advance, some only left with presidential suites available.

According to statistics, there were 2.35 million visitors in total accommodated in Tainan last year, of which 80% were domestic travelers, 7.35% were Mainland tourists, and 6.5% were Japanese tourists. Yi-Fong You believes that the political and economic atmosphere in Tainan is friendly; the number of Mainland tourists to Tainan will further increase. It is estimated that over the next two years there will be an extra 15 hotels and 3319 rooms created in Greater Tainan, showing how fashionable visiting Tainan is becoming.
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