Taiwan cruise arrivals double in first quarter
The Tourism Bureau of Taiwan says the number of cruise arrivals more than doubled in the first quarter of 2017.
This was despite a huge downturn in cruise tourists from mainland China due to tense cross-strait relations with Beijing.
The Tourism Bureau said Chinese cruise traffic plummeted by 90% to just a few hundred in Q1.
The bureau attributed the growth to successful marketing of cruise tourism and new cruise itineraries from the Philippines.
The Philippines market was up by more than 500% compared to a year ago.
Based on scheduled port calls, Taiwan could surpass one million cruise arrivals for the first time, tourism officials said.
Cruise-related tourism spending could also rise to NT$5 billion this year, it added.
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