Our goal is that the tourism industry becomes a locomotive that drives the economy forward,” she said at the opening of the “Tourism 2030: National Tourism Policy Development Conference.”As of last week, Taiwan had received 11.11 million international visitors this year, which would be the fifth year that the number of foreign travelers has exceeded 10 million, Tsai said. As the government would concentrate on promoting Taiwan’s mountains and other ecological resources to international tourists next year, Tsai said that it would also introduce Aboriginal cultures, which would add value to the nation’s tourism industry. “We will continue to find new sources of international travelers and hope to elevate the nation’s travel quality and quantity by building on the current foundation,” she said. In October, the number of international travelers who are not from China rose by 16 percent, also a new record. Statistics from the Tourism Bureau showed that the nation’s foreign-exchange earnings from tourism hit a peak in 2014 at US$14.61 billion.
