The Taiwan Tourism Bureau's target of 3.2 million visitors coming to Taiwan this year will be a tough one to meet, veterans from the tourism industry told the Taipei Times yesterday.
"It is not an unreachable goal, especially with hundreds of millions of dollars budgeted for publicity, as long as no unexpected incidents happen in the future," said Sean Chuang (
"But it is truly a challenge for both the government and the industry," Chuang said.
DOUBTS
Another industry executive agreed, casting doubt on whether overseas marketing could be effective.
"The government mainly focuses on Japan's younger generation of holidaymakers in marketing Taiwan's tourist attractions, but in the meantime fails to offer enough travel packages suitable for them," said Roget Hsu (
"The bird flu which now ails Asian countries may affect our ability to reach the target as well," Hsu added.
In order to boost Taiwan's tourism, the Executive Yuan officially launched a six-year project in September 2002, with the aim of doubling the number of foreign tourists visiting Taiwan to 5 million by 2008.
The project was frustrated by the outbreak of the SARS epidemic earlier last year when the number of inbound visitors dropped to just 2.2 million, which was 600,000 less than the planned number of visitors.
In an effort to reinvigorate Taiwan's tourism industry, the government put forth a subsidiary project last November, calling this year "Visit Taiwan Year," and thereby hoping to increase the number of foreign visitors to 3.2 million this year.
"To achieve the goal, we have formulated and put a series of approaches into practice from Jan. 1, including free visits to the National Palace Museum, the most attractive tourism venue for foreign visitors, and free half-day city tours for travelers in transit here in Taiwan," said Jean Hwang (
The bureau also offered 28 one-day or half-day bus tours priced at between NT$400 and NT$1,000, which run everyday throughout the year, taking foreign holidaymakers to spots in Taipei, Taichung, Kaohsiung, and Hualien with multilingual tour guides.
The Bureau has offered incentives to travel agencies.
"We provide partial subsidies for advertisements to foreign travel agencies bringing more holidaymakers to Taiwan than last year," Hwang said.
"Our 10 overseas offices in the Americas, Asia and Europe also provide tourism information and hold activities to promote Taiwan tourism," Hwang said.
Taiwan's premier was on hand at an event in Taipei to push for more tourism to the island.
JOINING THE CHORUS
"Promoting tourism not only helps boost economic development but also has a great positive influence on our urban planning, which enhances our living quality," said Yu Shyi-kun at the official opening ceremony for the "2004 Visit Taiwan Year" held yesterday by the Tourism Bureau under the Ministry of Transportation and Communication.
"Our overseas marketing approaches and provision of travel packages for foreign travelers, formulated and implemented via cooperation between government task forces and the tourism industry, plus the transportation infrastructure projects that have been completed, like the National Freeway No. 3, or that is to be finalized, such as Taiwan's High Speed Railway, can all lend us great strength to boost our tourism," he added.
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