Taiwan’s efforts to attract more international visitors are paying dividends, with the country’s share of the global market expected to significantly expand this year, according to the MasterCard Worldwide Index of Global Destination Cities published June 9.
Among 132 major global destination cities included in the assessment, Taipei ranks No.7 for projected visitor number and expenditure growth, the report stated.
The survey also forecasts 5.4 million visitor arrivals for Taipei in 2011, up 16.9 percent year on year. This puts the city ahead of Singapore, Tokyo and New York, and behind only Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong in the Asia-Pacific region.
Taipei is expected to see international visitor spending increase by 20.3 percent to over US$8.5 billion, ranking the city 17th among the top 20 destinations.
“From the survey, it is obvious that a steadily increasing number of tourists are selecting Taipei as their destination of choice, and they’re also willing to spend more,” said Yang Ya-ting, general manager of MasterCard Taiwan, in a news release.
“This report reaffirms the success of Taiwan’s ongoing efforts to promote tourism and urban infrastructure development,” she added.
Report author Yuwa Hedrick-Wong said although London tops the list for visitor and expenditure numbers, it is Asia Pacific’s cities that are expected to record the greatest growth over the next few years. “This indicates a West-East shift in importance among global destinations.”
In the Asia-Pacific region, Bangkok notched up the highest number of visitor arrivals with an estimated 11.5 million. It also headed the list of visitor spending at US$14.4 billion, which further confirms the city’s most-favored destination status in Asia.
The report forecasts a rosy outlook for the global tourism market, with outbound visitor air departures and expenditures growing 9.2 percent and 14.6 percent year on year, respectively.
Equally encouraging, of all top-ranked destination cities in the report, only three experienced a decline in visitor arrivals and two in visitor expenditures.
Write to Kwangyin Liu at kwangyin.liu@mail.gio.gov.tw