Taipei, April 28 (CNA) Passengers transiting at the Taoyuan International Airport will once again be able to sign up for free half-day tours of Taiwan beginning May 1, the Tourism Bureau said Tuesday.
Passengers who have valid Republic of China (Taiwan) visas or come from countries eligible for visa-exempt entry can apply online for the free tours, which were first introduced in 2003 but have been suspended since 2019 due to COVID-19.
The free tours are part of the Tourism Bureau's plans to attract 6 million foreign visitors to Taiwan in 2023.
The tours, available to transiting passengers whose connecting flights leave between 7 and 24 hours after landing in Taiwan, can be booked at the Taiwan Free half-day tour website.
For group tours, each limited to 18 participants, passengers can choose to visit Taipei in the morning, Taoyuan in the afternoon, or New Taipei in the evening, the bureau said.
On the "Discover Taipei's 100 Years of Glory" tour, for instance, passengers can visit the National Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall and explore the nearby Lungshan Temple, which was built in 1738.
The four-hour tour, which includes free transport and an English-speaking tour guide, will also bring passengers to Yongkang Street.
The street, a noted destination for its culinary offerings, was ranked as the fourth coolest street in the world by Time Out magazine in 2022.
The bureau will also be handing out 50 free one-way tickets each for the Taoyuan Airport MRT to transiting passengers who wish to explore Taiwan on their own.
The bureau said it hopes the trips, which at its peak between 2003-2019 attracted 8,000 transit passengers a year, can leave foreign visitors with a good impression of Taiwan so they will consider making the country a future travel destination.
Taiwan has introduced various cash incentives earlier this month to promote inbound travel, which has yet to take off since strict border controls for COVID-19 were lifted in October 2022.
In the three years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Taiwan averaged about 11.2 million overseas visitors per year, but those numbers plummeted to about 1.38 million in 2020, 141,000 in 2021 and 895,000 in 2022, including 302,100 in December 2022.
The numbers fell in January 2023 to about 8,000 per day, but have risen again to about 13,000 per day in February.
