Taiwan visitors to U.S. forecast to reach nearly 400,000 this year

Taipei, July 14 (CNA) Nearly 400,000 Taiwanese are expected to travel to the United States this year, around 78.6 percent of the total in 2019, the last year before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, a U.S. travel and tourism promoter in Taiwan said Sunday.

The U.S. will welcome an estimated 77.70 million international visitors this year, a 15.4 percent increase from 67.30 million in 2023, said Lo Shih-wen (羅世玟), the representative of Brand USA, which markets the U.S. to global travelers worldwide, in Taiwan.

Lo's estimate was based on forecast data from the National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO), the U.S.' foremost authority on travel research and policy matters.

The NTTO has also predicted that the number of international travelers to the U.S. will climb to 85.20 million in 2025, exceeding the 79.40 million that visited in 2019, according to Lo.

Of those, it predicted that 393,000 travelers will come from Taiwan this year, about 78.6 percent of the 499,520 recorded in 2019.

Amid booming demand for air travel to the U.S., more flights are being added from Taiwan to Seattle, with the number of airlines to operate the route rising from one to four this year.

EVA Airways, the first carrier to launch flights from Taipei to the U.S. city in 1993, added three more direct flights a week starting June 25 to bring its weekly flight frequency up to 10 after three other airlines said they would start flying the route.

Taiwan-based China Airlines (CAL), which operated flights on the route from 2004 to 2008, resumed services Sunday, offering five weekly flights, while Delta Air Lines launched seven weekly flights between Taoyuan and Seattle beginning on June 7.

Also, Starlux Airlines said it would fly three flights a week starting Aug. 16.

By then, there will be a total of 25 weekly flights from Taiwan to Seattle, or at least three per day.

Currently, nonstop flights between Taiwan and the United States are available from Taoyuan to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Houston, and New York.

According to Civil Aviation Administration statistics, almost all of the flights between Taiwan and the U.S. in 2023 had load factors of 90 percent or higher.