To help recover from the pandemic and increase tourism, Taiwan is considering offering visitors a small stipend for visiting the island. If you’re thinking about taking a vacation soon, this extra cash could be a nice bonus.
To attract visitors, the island is offering cash incentives of up to NT$20,000 (approximately RM2,923) for every tour group and up to NT$5,000 (approximately RM731) per individual visitor. After arriving in Taiwan, visitors will receive the funds digitally, and they can use them to pay for anything from transportation to lodging.
Passengers may wish to wait first before making any plans, as it is still unclear when the funds will be issued or how to apply for them.
Taiwan’s Premier, Chen Chien-jen, made the plan public last week during a press conference, saying that the government’s goal is to attract 10 million visitors annually to Taiwan by 2025.
The new plan intends to increase international visitors after the pandemic, which saw a decline to under 900,000 in 2022 from 11.8 million in 2019. The Taipei Times reports that the subsidy will be distributed at a variety of promotional events throughout the year and will be available to only about 500,000 foreign visitors.
Wang Kuo-tsai, the island’s minister of transportation, has indicated that they hope the incentive will attract tourists from Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Macao, Europe, and the United States.
Taiwan is not the only Asian country offering financial incentives to tourists. In an effort to welcome back tourists, Hong Kong is giving away half a million complimentary roundtrip airline tickets as part of its ‘Hello! Hong Kong’ tourism campaign.
