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Tourism Development Across the Taiwan Strait

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Abstract

This article examines the tourism development between Taiwan and China over the last three decades under different political situation. First, Taiwan’s democratization in the 1980s made the control over outbound travel to China no longer necessary. Meanwhile, the Taiwanese visitors were welcomed at the time when China’s foreign currency was in deficiency. Second, the opening up of mainland Chinese visitors to Taiwan since 2008 marked another breakthrough in the Cross-Strait tourism development. However, as the opening up of Chinese tourists to Taiwan is based on the same “political consensus” between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and KMT in Taiwan, any dissimilar political agreements in the future may lead China to constrain the number Chinese tourists to the island. Third, the rapidly growing number of Chinese tourists brought much business benefit to the various tourism sectors in Taiwan. Nonetheless, the contribution to Taiwan’s economy is in doubt due to the insignificant tourism sector in Taiwan’s overall economy. From the current perspective, the tourism development across the Strait is more politically symbolic than substantive.

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Notes

  1. Although the Taiwanese government did not officially recognize the People’s Republic of China, it began to acknowledge the co-existence of two Chinese political entities. For example, in 1989, Taiwan government established diplomatic relations with Grenada without requiring this country to break off its official links with the PRC. This is very different from during Chiang Kai-shek’s era. Chiang Kai-shek insisted that Republic of China is the sole government representing all the China and there is no room for patriots and traitors to live together (in Chinese, hanzei buliangli).

  2. Source: Macroeconomic Database for Emerging and Developed Markets, by CEIC Data, 2011, http://www.ceicdata.com/.

  3. Source: CEIC.

  4. Chiang Pin-kung is the Chairman of SEF and Chen Yunlin is the Chairman of ARATS. The Chiang-Chen Summit followed the previous Cross-Strait talks, or Koo-Wang Summit, which was suspended in 1999.

  5. The 11 forbidden activities include 1) participation of election campaigns; 2) participation of political-related activities; 3) entry into national research and development laboratories or other important organizations; 4) entry into military sites or national defence areas; 5) entry into fortresses to take pictures; 6) gambling or drug sales that would agitate the social order; 7) short term work; 8) express their opinions on TV or on the air; 9) deliver a lecture; 10) sign a letter of intent or recruitment booth; 11) other activities that other Taiwanese rules prohibit.

  6. 3% of Chinese the tourists in Taiwan were 19 years and below, 33% were between 20 and 39 years old, and 22% were 60 years old and above [Source: Tourism Bureau of Taiwan].

  7. Shopping is popular for most Chinese travellers. In 2010, of the RMB326.4 billion expenditure by Chinese outbound tourists, 31.3% was on shopping. The combination of expenditure on food (12.2%), accommodation (11.3%) and entertainment (6.3%) was less than shopping (Euromonitor International, 2011).

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  1. East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore, 469A Bukit Timah Road, Tower Block #06-01, Singapore, Singapore, 259770

    Min-Hua Chiang

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Correspondence to Min-Hua Chiang.

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Chiang, MH. Tourism Development Across the Taiwan Strait. East Asia 29, 235–253 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12140-012-9178-z

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