Taiwan, which was recently ranked as the safest non-Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) destination in the global Muslim travel market, needs to improve its efforts to promote the unique experience it offers to stand out from other destinations, a Tourism Bureau official said.
Only about 200,000 of the 10.44 million visitors to the nation last year were Muslims, leaving businesses in the tourism sector disappointed with the poor return on their investment targeting the market.
The number is small considering Taiwan was named the seventh-most popular destination and the safest among 130 non-OIC destinations worldwide in the MasterCard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index in March.
MasterCard forecast the number of Muslim travelers, which reached 117 million, or 10 percent of the global figure, would grow to 168 million by 2020.
Tourism Bureau Deputy Director-General Wayne Liu (劉喜臨) said in an interview that it took Taiwan more than 10 years to increase the number of Japanese visitors to 1.63 million last year, adding it is unlikely that the number of Muslim visitors would grow significantly after just two years of effort.
The bureau said the 200,000 Muslim visitors mainly came from Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, and that not many were from the Middle East.
Liu said the bureau’s exhibition at last year’s Arabian Travel Market (ATM) fair in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, was successful in promoting what a unique experience Taiwan has to offer to Middle Eastern travelers.
The bureau decorated the Taiwan pavilion with orchids, sky lanterns and a plot of grass planted on real soil, while tea was offered by a tea master, who demonstrated the art of tea making.
“Middle Eastern people seemed to like the smell of the moist soil and the greenness. Exhibitors often wandered into the Taiwan pavilion to smell the soil and the flowers, and to drink a cup of tea grown in Taiwan’s mountainous regions. The exhibition helped to create an image of Taiwan as a tourist destination in people’s minds,” Liu said.
Liu said the bureau has attended the ATM fair for the past two years, but that not many Taiwanese tour operators have been willing to attend or to establish partnerships with their Middle Eastern counterparts.
Without such partnerships, promotions of tours to Taiwan in the Middle East are unlikely to flourish, Liu said.
Asked whether Dubai-based airline Emirates’ recent launch of an Airbus A380 on its daily Taipei-Dubai service would bring more visitors from the region, Liu said it was a possibility, but Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways (國泰航空) appears a more popular option. After the launch of the A380 service on May 1, Emirates chief commercial officer Thierry Antinori said in Taipei that the carrier is working with the bureau and travel agencies to promote Taiwan as a tourist destination in the Middle East and Europe.
The Regent Taipei hotel, one of the hotels that is certified to cater to Muslim visitors, said such customers only account for 5 percent of its total.
As of April 15, more than 30 hotels in Taiwan had been certified as Muslim-friendly tourism venues by the Taipei-based Chinese Muslim Association.
To acquire the certification, a hotel needs to have rooms and Halal food that meet the needs of Muslim guests.
The DBS Foundation yesterday announced the launch of two flagship programs, “Silver Motion” and “Happier Caregiver, Healthier Seniors,” in partnership with CCILU Ltd, Hondao Senior Citizens’ Welfare Foundation and the Garden of Hope Foundation to help Taiwan face the challenges of a rapidly aging population. The foundation said it would invest S$4.91 million (US$3.8 million) over three years to foster inclusion and resilience in an aging society. “Aging may bring challenges, but it also brings opportunities. With many Asian markets rapidly becoming super-aged, the DBS Foundation is working with a regional ecosystem of like-minded partners across the private, public and people sectors
BREAKTHROUGH TECH: Powertech expects its fan-out PLP system to become mainstream, saying it can offer three-times greater production throughput Chip packaging service provider Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技) plans to more than double its capital expenditures next year to more than NT$40 billion (US$1.31 billion) as demand for its new panel-level packaging (PLP) technology, primarily used in chips for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, has greatly exceeded what it can supply. A significant portion of the budget, about US$1 billion, would be earmarked for fan-out PLP technology, Powertech told investors yesterday. Its heavy investment in fan-out PLP technology over the past 10 years is expected to bear fruit in 2027 after the technology enters volume production, it said, adding that the tech would
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has secured three construction permits for its plan to build a state-of-the-art A14 wafer fab in Taichung, and is likely to start construction soon, the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau said yesterday. Speaking with CNA, Wang Chun-chieh (王俊傑), deputy director general of the science park bureau, said the world’s largest contract chipmaker has received three construction permits — one to build a fab to roll out sophisticated chips, another to build a central utility plant to provide water and electricity for the facility and the other to build three office buildings. With the three permits, TSMC
YEAR-END BOOST: The holiday shopping season in the US and Europe, combined with rising demand for AI applications, is expected to drive exports to a new high, the NDC said Taiwan’s business climate monitor improved last month, transitioning from steady growth for the first time in five months, as robust global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products and new iPhone shipments boosted exports and corporate sales, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. The council uses a five-color system to measure the nation’s economic state, with “green” indicating steady growth, “red” suggesting a boom and “blue” reflecting a recession. “Yellow-red” and “yellow-blue” suggest a transition to a stronger or weaker condition. The total score of the monitor’s composite index rose to 35 points from a revised 31 in August, ending a four-month
RSS