‘Paying to suffer’: Why more than twice as many Taiwanese travel abroad as foreign tourists fly in

TAIPEI – Taiwanese fitness instructor Shih Yu-hsin has travelled to Japan on holiday three times over the past year. Not once did she consider vacationing within Taiwan. The 29-year-old, who is based in Taipei, said that domestic travel costs in Taiwan often feel inflated for what is provided, especially when it comes to accommodation. “Local hotels and bed and breakfasts in Taiwan offer such ‘low CP value’,” she said, using the popular localised slang to mean “cost-performance ratio” or “value for money”. “I can get much better value in Japan – even the most basic lodgings there are usually cleaner…