Trust the Australians to lure tourists back Down Under in their latest campaign with a tried-and-true formula of good food, superb weather, beautiful beaches, Aborigines and a bikini-clad Lolita inoffensively chirping "So where the bloody hell are you?"
Compared with the humdrum efforts that Taiwan comes up with targeting the international market, such splendid advertising can only lead those who want growth in Taiwanese tourism to shake their heads in despair.
The frustrating thing for those who want to see more visitors here is that Taiwan, for its size, has a lot to offer the intrepid tourist, or even those who prefer to dine at McDonald's every night.
Taroko Gorge (
Many more people overseas have, however, heard of the Taipei 101 skyscraper. But relying on this daytime eyesore to pump up tourist numbers is ill-advised. It has a dildo-like ribbed concrete spire atop what appears to be a series of inverted plastic stools, it radiates juvenile wealth-accumulation symbolism, and it features a washed-out "jade" hue that apes the 1960s Western modernism so ably parodied by Jacques Tati in films like Mon Oncle and Playtime. Taipei 101 cannot compete on any aesthetic level with modern structures like the Empire State Building, the Eiffel Tower or the Sydney Opera House. Build it and they will come, so it has been said, but Taipei 101 will not lure the overseas dollar because its only drawcard is that it's tall.
The "Taiwan, touch your heart" campaign of the last year has been a reasonable attempt to graft Taiwan's cultural attractions and welcoming population to its natural beauty, but as with so many official forays into the English language, the slogan doesn't quite make sense. Fittingly, overseas tourists are still forced to endure erratic or non-existent English and Japanese-language service after they arrive.
Recently, pan-blue camp legislators suggested that director Ang Lee (李安) make a film about the assassination attempt on the president and vice president. This was a stupid suggestion, unless the legislators are prepared to fund the film out of their pockets and give total creative control to Lee. But what cannot be disputed is that Lee and other Taiwanese filmmakers would be excellent choices for making a series of big-budget, wide-screen commercials for overseas markets. The idea is so obvious that it should be no surprise that the government's tourism authorities apparently haven't thought of it -- or, at least, are repelled by the amount of money that would be required.
One idea the Tourism Bureau has been toying with recently is inviting young Australians and New Zealanders to Taiwan to train as temporary tour guides for English speakers. This seems an interesting initiative -- until the fine print emerges. They would be paid a paltry NT$25,000 (US$770) per month. As if that weren't insult enough, regulations require them to have US$4,000 in savings, which even bureau officials have acknowledged is something of a disincentive.
If the Tourism Bureau wants to implement programs developing professional tourism services, then why does it treat -- and pay -- budding participants like rank amateurs?
During the Cultural Revolution, one of the more obnoxious expressions that became quite popular was "Better red than expert," that is to say, faith in Mao Zedong Thought was considered superior to bourgeois excellence in scientific and technical disciplines. The equivalent of this expression for the Tourism Bureau and other agencies that refuse to aim for world-class standards of self-promotion seems to be less ideological, but equally applicable: "Better brain-dead than expert."
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under