TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan is optimistic about achieving its goal of six million tourist arrivals in 2023, even though China has yet to allow group travel to Taiwan.

China on Thursday (Aug. 10) added an additional 78 countries where Chinese tourists are allowed to travel on tour packages, including Japan and South Korea, but not Taiwan. Some fear Taiwan may not be able to hit the six million mark this year.

To address this concern, Chou Ting-chang (周廷彰), deputy director-general of the Tourism Bureau, told CNA that Taiwan is seeing a revival of inbound tourism from countries like South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, surpassing pre-COVID levels. Along with an uptick in visitors from Japan, the U.S., and Europe, the threshold of six million should not be hard to cross, he added.

According to Klook, an online travel service provider, Taiwan travel products are mostly well-received among those from Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, and Singapore. Popular items include transportation offers (car rental and Taiwan High-Speed Rail services), tourist attraction admission tickets (for example, Taipei 101 and the National Palace Museum), and one-day travel passes (such as trips to Hualien’s Taroko and Taipei’s Beitou).

Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said on Friday (Aug. 11) tourist arrivals in Taiwan passed 3.4 million as of Thursday (Aug. 10). He hinted at further opening up Taiwan’s borders to Chinese tourists from third countries to boost cross-strait tourism.

Travel operators have complained about a stalemate in cross-strait tourism, blaming the government for refusing to grant group travel to China. A petition was submitted to the Tourism Bureau in June, asking Taiwan to relax relevant rules as a gesture of goodwill, per UDN.