Taipei, Aug. 24 (CNA) Taiwan's outlying Matsu Island group is launching a drive to attract more foreign tourists in the hope that a local tourism boost can prevent marginalization amid the warmer ties between Taiwan and China, a local tourism official said Tuesday.
"If Matsu does not try to leverage its geographic advantages, its economy will be marginalized as cross-strait direct flights are now running at full steam, " said Tsao Erh-yuen, director of the Tourism Bureau of the Lianjiang county government, on the sidelines of a press conference to announce a three-day tourism promotional tour.
Matsu, an archipelago in the Taiwan Strait lying 190 km from Taiwan's Keelung and 19 km from the Chinese coast, is administered by Taiwan as a part of Lianjiang County. The other part of the county is in China and has been under the control of the People's Republic of China since 1949.
Matsu, which is located off the coast of eastern Fujian Province, and Kinmen, another Taiwan-controlled outlying island which is near China's Xiamen, were at the forefront of the cross-strait conflict and remained under the war-zone civil administration until 1992, five years after the lifting of martial law in Taiwan.
According to Tsao, the local economy received a boost in 2001 after the implementation of the "mini three links" that allow limited postal, transport and trade links between several Chinese cities and Kinmen and Matsu.
However, he added, since links allowing direct flights, shipping and postal between Taiwan proper and China were fully implemented in 2008, Matsu has become merely a "stopover" en route to Taiwan for Chinese tourists.
"Generally speaking, our local tourism really needs a shot in the arm, " he said. According to Tsao's bureau, total tourist arrivals to Matsu were around 20,000 in 2004, increasing to more than 80,000 in 2009. Kinmen attracts far more travelers than Matsu by a 5:1 ratio.
For this reason, Matsu, which is known for its liquor production, traditional Fujianese architecture and military tunnels and fortresses, intends to do everything it can to attract more foreign tourists, who account for less than 10 percent of its annual visitors, said Lianjiang Magistrate Yang Sui-sheng.
The tour will include three female Russian students studying at Kainan University in northern Taiwan's Taoyuan County. Alexandria Zakhazova, 22, her 20-year-old sister Daria and Maria Kravchenko, 18, will get first-hand experience of the archipelago, along with 12 foreign reporters.
"We came to Taiwan to study because this is a place where you can see multiple influences, including those from Japan, the United States and China. I think it's going to be an exciting experience to learn about a new place. And we would love to visit as many places as possibly can during our stay in Taiwan, " said Alexandra Zakhazova.
The girls appeared at the press conference dressed in Republic of China army uniform a day before their departure for Matsu, an area of less than 30 square kilometers that at one point was home to a garrison of more than 50,000 troops. The number of soldiers stationed there is now down to around 2,000. (By Chris Wang) ENDITEM/J