Making better use of the tourism resources across Taiwan, the Tourism Bureau of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (交通部觀光局) has launched the "2008 Doubling of Tourist Arrival Plan" (2008 觀光客倍增計畫) to promote tourism as one of the country's major industries.
Some 2 million tourists visited Taiwan last year, bringing in foreign exchange of US$4.197 billion, according to the ministry. The program is aimed at attracting over 5 million tourists in six years.
One of the major projects in the six-year plan is "New Taiwan by Design International Competition," which is intended to give the most-visited tourist destinations a makeover to increase their appeal. In the preliminary selection which ended last week, architects here and abroad have been competing for contracts to design the Fenchihu train station in Alishan mountain (阿里山奮起湖車站), the Water Activity Park (親水公園) and Scenic Area Administration Building (風景管理中心) at Sun Moon Lake (日月潭), Fuchi Harbor (富基漁港) and Padouzi Harbor (八斗子漁港) on the Northeast Coast are and Tropical Botanical Garden (熱帶植物園) and its surrounding in Hengchen Peninsula (恆春半島).
The Tourism Bureau has earmarked NT$1.65 billion for the construction of these projects.
Following the "Landform Series" of improvements will be the "Gateway Series" of upgrades under the "New Taiwan by Design" program, which will be launched within months to enlist designs to give transportation hubs, such as CKS Airport (中正機場), Taipei Main Station (台北車站), Keelung's Ocean Plaza (基隆海洋廣場) and Kaohsiung's Starlight Harbor (高雄星光碼頭) a facelift.
The bureau is still working on selecting the tourist destinations to include in the third and final part of the program.
"New Taiwan by Design" is the most high-profile international architecture design competition since the Taipei City Government Bureau of Urban Development's design competition of Capital Plaza in 2001, which enlisted designs for the space in front of the Presidential Office to be carried out if there was reconstruction of the space in the future.
"While the Capital Plaza project is more conceptual, `New Taiwan by Design' will really carry out the winning designs. It has dealt with land ownership and other practical issues. It's also been guaranteed with a solid budget. There's also a clear timetable. These projects will definitely be carried out," said Chin Guang-yu (金光裕), editor in chief of the architectural magazine Dialogue (建築雜誌), a co-executor of the program.
After the results of the
competition come out in November, the Tourism Bureau is scheduled to sign design contracts with the winning architects in December. "Contracting for the construction is scheduled to start early next year, and by the end of 2005 we should see the new buildings on these locations," Chin said.
Lin Sheng-feng (林盛豐), organizer of the competition and convener of the jury composed of eight architects from Malaysia, the US, the Netherlands, Japan and Taiwan, expects this new international-level architecture to help the development of the selected tourist spots.
"The quality of a tourist spot depends on both private investments and public infrastructure. What we are trying to provide are public buildings whose architecture is above an international level, which we hope would then encourage the private sector to invest in these tourist spots in the future," Lin said.
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