On Friday, August 7, Providence University Tourism Department Associate Professor Huang Cheng-tsung (黃正聰) claimed Friday that Taiwan had achieved its 2030 tourism revenue goal early. At the 2026 Culinary Exhibition, President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) stated the dual goals of 10 million international tourists annually and a tourism revenue exceeding NT$1 trillion (about US$31 billion) by 2030, but Huang says the financial benchmark is already accomplished.

Huang cited the latest Tourism Administration statistics. Comparing pre-pandemic spending with data from 2025, Huang noted that domestic tourism spending increased, outpacing the decrease in international tourist spending. He said this resulted in an overall positive increase for Taiwan’s tourism revenue, from NT$838.4 billion (nearly US$26 billion) to NT$908.2 billion (about US$28 billion). 

Huang noted that if the increase of approximately NT$102 billion (about US$3 billion) in air passenger revenue from the same time period is included, domestic tourism revenue already exceeded the one trillion goal last year.

However, Taiwanese citizens have also increased the amount they spend overseas, again exceeding one trillion dollars for the first time in 2025. This would mean that both domestic and overseas tourism revenue in Taiwan exceeded President Lai’s stated goal just last year.

As for Lai’s goal of 10 million international tourists annually, Huang said that the number of visitors to Taiwan has also continued to steadily grow, though it hasn’t yet recovered from pre-pandemic levels.