Taiwan's New NT$8,000 Tourist Reward, Explained (2026)

Disclaimer: This article reflects the author's personal opinion, research and experience as of June 2026, not official guidance from any government body. The repeat-visitor incentive described was still in a planning stage at the time of writing and may change or never launch as reported. Always verify current prices, rules and visa requirements with the relevant official source before making travel plans. Faretus and the author accept no liability for inaccuracies, changes, or decisions made based on this content.

On 17 June 2026, Taiwan's Tourism Administration confirmed it is preparing a new cash-style incentive for foreign tourists who come back to the island: up to NT$8,000 (roughly US$250) per qualifying trip. If you've ever registered for Taiwan's older "lucky draw" tourist refunds — like we did, and didn't win — this is a different, related programme, not a continuation of it. Here's what's actually been announced, what's still unconfirmed, and how it stacks up against the scheme we tried ourselves in September 2025.

TL;DR

Taiwan's Tourism Administration announced on 17 June 2026 that it is planning an "International Visitor Repeat-Travel Reward" programme.
Structure: NT$5,000 for a returning ("repeat") foreign visitor, plus an extra NT$3,000 if they bring a travel companion — NT$8,000 total per qualifying pair.
It's open to "all international tourists," according to the agency, but as of this writing the registration process, exact eligibility rules, and launch date have not been published.
It follows — and is separate from — the earlier "Taiwan the Lucky Land" lottery (May 2023–September 2025), which paid out NT$5,000 to lottery winners regardless of repeat status, and the smaller "Thank You Season" draw that ran November 2025–January 2026.
The timing lines up with Japan cutting its passport fee from ¥15,900 to ¥7,000 starting 1 July 2026, which Taiwan is explicitly trying to capitalise on.

What was actually announced

According to the Taipei Times and Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA), the Tourism Administration said it is Planning and Drafting a programme it's calling the International Visitor Repeat-Travel Reward. The mechanics reported so far:

A foreign visitor who is returning to Taiwan (i.e., not a first-time visitor) can receive NT$5,000 in travel discounts.
If that visitor brings a travel companion, an additional NT$3,000 is available — for a combined NT$8,000.
The agency says the offer applies to all nationalities, not a specific source market, although Japan is clearly the priority audience for the announcement.

Taiwan received almost 3 million inbound visitors in Q1 2026 alone, up 3.8% year-on-year, and Japanese travelers remain the single largest group: about 1.48 million arrivals in 2025, up over 12% from 2024 and back to roughly 70% of 2019 levels. Tourism Administration Director-General Chen Yu-hsiu met Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA) president Kuniharu Ebina and Hankyu Travel International chairman Jun Sakai days before the announcement, and both governments are coordinating: Japan is cutting its passport application fee from ¥15,900 to ¥7,000 from 1 July 2026, and JATA has launched its own campaign to push Japanese travelers abroad. Taiwan's reward scheme is designed to ride that wave.

Important caveat: several outlets covering the story, including travel forum FlyerTalk, note that "how this will roll out hasn't been publicized yet." Taiwanese-language coverage from CNA and Mirror Media uses words like "proposed to launch" and "planning" rather than language indicating a live, bookable programme. In plain terms: this is a confirmed policy direction, not yet a working registration system. No dates, no website, and no formal definition of "repeat visitor" (does one prior trip count? does it need to be within a certain number of years?) have been published as of late June 2026. We'll update this article once the Tourism Administration opens registration — for now, treat every "how to apply" guide you see online with suspicion, because nobody can answer that yet.

This isn't new money out of nowhere — Taiwan has done this before

If this sounds familiar, it's because Taiwan has run cash-back tourist incentives since the country reopened post-pandemic. It's worth knowing the lineage, because the new scheme is explicitly a sequel to programmes that genuinely paid out:

1. "Taiwan the Lucky Land", 1 May 2023 – 30 September 2025. This was the big one. Independent travelers registered online — choosing either a prepaid e-ticket card (EasyCard, iPASS or icash2.0) or accommodation vouchers — between 1 and 7 days before their scheduled arrival, and winners were drawn from those who actually completed the trip. The prize was NT$5,000, either loaded onto a transit card (capped at NT$1,500 per use on EasyCard, NT$1,000 on iPASS, no cap on icash2.0) or issued as five NT$1,000 accommodation vouchers usable at partner hotels and B&Bs, valid for 90 days. Full rules are still archived on the official campaign site, travel.5000.taiwan.net.tw. According to Taiwan's Tourism Administration annual report, 1.65 million people registered for the independent-traveler draw in the program's first year alone, with Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia among the top source markets — the Philippines also ranked in the top six over the life of the campaign, per the Tourism Administration's English news page.

2. "Thank You Season," 12 November 2025 – 30 January 2026 (noon, Taiwan time). A smaller, shorter follow-up draw, with prizes including air tickets and hotel vouchers, launched right after the original lottery ended. Also confirmed on the Tourism Administration's official news page.

3. "Enter Taiwan, Enjoy a Gift!", 1 November 2025 – 31 October 2026. A different, much smaller perk for transit passengers: anyone on a foreign passport transiting through Taoyuan Airport for up to 24 hours can register and pick up a NT$600 voucher at the airport's Visitor Service Centers. Details on the official campaign page.

The new NT$8,000 repeat-visitor reward, announced this June, is a different animal from all three: it's explicitly aimed at people who have already been to Taiwan before, it isn't framed as a random draw (everyone reported "eligible" appears to get the reward rather than win it), and it pays more if you bring someone along. Whether it replaces, runs alongside, or eventually merges with another lottery-style draw is exactly the part that hasn't been announced yet.

Our own experience with the lottery

A friend and I were in Taiwan in September 2025 — right at the tail end of "Taiwan the Lucky Land," which we didn't realize until we were already there. We registered online a few days before arrival and got our QR codes by email as promised. The actual draw, though, didn't happen by mail or app — it happened in person: after landing at Taoyuan (TPE) and clearing the exit, there were digital kiosks set up specifically for this, where you scanned your QR code on the spot to find out instantly whether you'd won. Both of us scanned, and both of us lost. Slightly anticlimactic given how much we'd read about it online, but at least the mechanism was clear — no waiting around for an email that might never come.

What convinced us the programme was real, though, was watching it happen to someone else. On one of the day tours we joined, a couple from the Philippines told us they'd each separately won NT$5,000 through the same draw — two cards, two people, no connection to each other beyond being on the same minibus as us. So the lottery clearly was paying out real money to real travelers; we just weren't among the lucky ones that week. Given the Philippines' presence in the campaign's top-six source markets, their win lines up with the official numbers rather than being a fluke story.

If the new repeat-visitor scheme really does scrap the "luck" element in favor of "qualify and claim," that would be a meaningful change from our experience — guaranteed money for eligible returning visitors beats a draw you might lose twice in a row.

Entry rules for most travelers heading to Taiwan right now

None of this changes how you actually get into the country, so here's the current baseline — always double-check your own nationality before booking, since this is exactly the kind of rule that gets adjusted with little notice.

Visa-exempt entry (typically 90 days): citizens of around 65+ countries and territories can enter without a visa, including the US, UK, most of the EU/Schengen area, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Passport must be valid 6+ months beyond arrival, and you generally need a return or onward ticket. The definitive, regularly updated list is on the Bureau of Consular Affairs (BOCA) Visa-Exempt Entry page — treat any third-party "complete list" article (including ours, if we ever publish one) as secondary to that page.
Visa-exempt entry, shorter stays: Thailand, the Philippines and Brunei have their own reciprocal visa-exemption arrangement, currently good for up to 14 days and reconfirmed through 31 July 2026 — check BOCA directly closer to your travel date, since these short-term arrangements get renewed (or not) periodically.
R.O.C. (Taiwan) Travel Authorization Certificate: citizens of India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos who don't otherwise qualify for visa-free entry can apply online for this certificate, which is valid for 90 days from approval and allows a 30-day stay per entry. Details and the application portal are on BOCA's certificate page.
Everyone else: a standard visitor visa, applied for at a Taiwan representative office before travel.
Mandatory for almost all foreign arrivals regardless of visa status: the free Taiwan Online Arrival Card, submitted up to 3 days before arrival via the National Immigration Agency's portal or app.

None of the visa rules have changed as part of this tourism-incentive announcement — it's a spending/cashback scheme layered on top of normal entry requirements, not a different way to get in.

What to actually do right now

If you're planning a return trip to Taiwan hoping to claim the new NT$8,000 incentive: there's nothing to register for yet. The safest approach is to bookmark the Tourism Administration's English news page, where the original Lucky Land and Thank You Season campaigns were both posted with full rules once they were finalized, and to recheck closer to your travel dates. We'll update this article the moment a registration site, dates or eligibility rules go live.

And if you haven't found your next cheap flight yet — to Taiwan or anywhere else — the Faretus deals page is where to start.

Disclaimer: All prices, schedules and service details in this article reflect information available in June 2026. The author and Faretus accept no liability for any inaccuracies, changes, or decisions made based on this content.