The number of international travellers visiting Taiwan declined in the first quarter of 2017.

The total of 2.54 million visitors for January-March 2017 was 10% lower than the same period last year. This decline was driven by a sharp 42% drop in the number of visitors from mainland China, although the total of 659,575 cross-Strait arrivals still represented Taiwan’s largest source market.

Arrivals from Hong Kong and Macau also fell sharply, down 25% to 342,270, while the number of Japanese visitors was almost unchanged.

Taiwan welcomed a total of 10.4m overseas visitors in 2016, up 2.4% year-on-year. But the number arrivals from mainland China fell 14.4% to 3.61m, the first drop in eight years.