KENTING TOURISTS DECREASE BY 1.6M OVER LAST YEAR|陸客減.景氣差 墾丁遊客較同期大減160萬

The Kenting National Park, located at the southernmost tip of Taiwan, has seen the number of visiting tourists double in the past decade. Last year, a record of 8 million people visited the area. However, latest statistics showed the first drop in tourist numbers in years. As of the end of October, the number of tourists this year was down by 1.6 million counts against last year. Park officials attribute the decline to both political and economic factors. Shops near the Eluanbi Lighthouse used to have high business transactions on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. However it's the Friday afternoon, shop employees are more than tourists. Some shops had no transaction at all and some had their doors shut down. ==SHOP OWNER== Business here is a lot worse. When business is down, many shops have their doors shut. ==SHOP OWNER== Our businesses are very poor. Shops here used to have good sales in the past, now we need to wait for our first sale transaction. In recent years, Eluanbi and Maobitou had a major number of tourists from China, however as the number of tourists has been decreasing, the number of tour buses per month is two to three thousand less than it used to be. Until the end of October of this year, the number of tourists to the Kenting National Park is one million sixty thousand people less than previous years. ==LIU PEI-TUNG, Kenting National Park Director== Maybe it's related to the social, political and economic atmosphere, or maybe it's related to the fact of decreasing number of Chinese tourists. The number of tourists to the Kenting National Park had increased from four million to eight million starting 2008 when Taiwan opened her door to Mainland Chinese tourists. This year, a decreasing number of Chinese tourists is obvious, however as to businesses in the South Bay area, owners do not feel much differences. ==BUSINESS OWNER South Bay== We are doing fine because our business growth for last year and this year are about the same. Way before mainland Chinese tourists came, we were just like this. ==LIU PEI-TUNG, Kenting Nat'l Park Headquarter Director== After such changes, it seems to me the quality of recreation is better than the past. The Kenting National Park Headquarter stated, the number of tourists in the past two years was too high, some attraction points were overloaded with tourists. The low number of tourists does not mean negative impact. The headquarter hopes to promote in-depth ecological tours in order to match up with the spirits of national parks. TRANSLATED BY：ANTHONY LIN 鵝鑾鼻燈塔的商店街，原本週五、六、日三天是人潮最多的時候，但週五下午，店員卻比遊客多，有的店一天下來沒做成一件交易，有的乾脆關門休息。 ==商店街業者== 差很多 生意不好就 很多人都會休息 ==商店街業者== 我們非常慘 你看以前 我們這邊商家大家生意都還不錯 現在都等開張 鵝鑾鼻跟貓鼻頭這幾年客群都以陸客為主，來台陸客大減，這些景點的入園遊客也跟著明顯減少，平均每月少了2千到3千輛大客車，進一步統計整個墾丁國家公園，到十月底，遊客已經比去年少了160萬人。 ==墾管處長 劉培東== 可能是大環境的關係 或者是陸客減少的關係 所造成的因素其實也是存在 墾丁遊客量從2008年開放陸客以來明顯增加，從400多萬人到去年突破8百萬人，今年除了陸客大減，但像客群較多元的南灣，業者就不在意。 ==南灣遊憩業者== 我們做生意還好 因為我們去年 跟今年的成長率差不多 因為大陸客沒來之前 也是這樣子過 ==墾管處長 劉培東== 這樣子的調整之後 其實遊憩的品質 好像我看起來 是比較提高了一些 墾管處認為覺得這兩年遊客太過飽和，有的景點已經超過環境負擔，人數少一點未必不好，未來希望主力發展深度生態旅遊，讓墾丁的旅遊更符合國家公園精神。 記者 王介村 許政俊 屏東報導