March 17, 2006
Taiwan's international airports were busy in 2005 as arrivals by foreign visitors and departures by Taiwanese nationals both reached record highs.
According to figures released by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics in mid February the number of arrivals by foreigners rose 14.5% on the year to hit a record-high 3.378 million in 2005. This translates into an average of 9,000 arrivals per day.
Japanese nationals, who racked up 1.124 million visits, accounted for the greatest portion of this total. Arrivals by citizens of Hongkong and Macao, who racked up a combined 433,000 visits, made up the second highest percentage of total foreign arrivals, while those by people from the United States, 391,000 arrivals in all, accounted for the next highest portion.
The DGBAS figures show that tourism and business were the two main reasons foreign nationals visited Taiwan in 2005, with 40.9% citing the former and 28% the latter.
The number of departures for overseas destinations by Taiwanese citizens increased 5.5% from 2004 to a highest-ever 8.208 million in 2005, for an average of 22,000 departures daily.
The 2.807 million departures for Hongkong accounted for 34.2% of all departures by Taiwanese nationals in 2005, while those for Japan, 1.18 million, made up the second highest percentage of 14.4%. The third most popular destination for Taiwanese departures was Macao, which accounted for 1.164 million departures in all in 2005.
(Central News Agency)
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