The Tourism Bureau premiered a TV commercial yesterday featuring the popular boy band F4, scheduled to be broadcast in Japan and Korea starting next month.
The 30-second TV spot is part of the bureau's aggressive marketing campaign to increase the number of Japanese and Korean tourists visiting Taiwan each year.
The story begins with a Japanese tourist receiving a letter from Taiwan, then shifts to four famous local scenic spots, which are visited by the F4 members.
PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES
Jerry Yan (言承旭) appears in an exhibition room at the National Palace Museum, looking at Chinese calligraphy and then becoming one of the characters in an ancient painting.
Vanness Wu (吳建豪) is first seen playing with a lantern in Pingsi (平溪), Taipei County. Two seconds later, Taipei 101 is seen, amid exploding fireworks.
Ken Chu (
Meanwhile, Vic Chou (周渝民) is seen playing with a Taiwanese puppet, with the traditional art center in Ilan County in the background.
The bureau's director general Janice Lai (賴瑟珍) said yesterday that the commercial will appear on 14 TV stations in Japan and three in Korea.
Lai said that a TV series featuring F4 will also begin shooting next month. Based on the contract, the series will be broadcast by the end of this year.
Lai also confirmed that Yan will not be in the TV series due to prior obligations. While Chu and Chou are guaranteed to be in the series, Lai said the bureau was working to get Wu on board.
To Lai, the commercial was a gratifying experience.
"Many Japanese tourists are impressed by the snacks at the night markets, the fortune-tellers or the Hsiaolongbao [little steamed buns]," she said." What we are trying to create is a fresher image. Through the charm of these four people, we hope to give our guests a better understanding of Taiwan."
Besides the TV networks, the commercial will also feature on flights from Japan and Korea before they land in Taiwan.
The bureau is hoping to increase the number of Japanese tourists to 1.23 million and that of Koreans to 210,000 annually.
Food delivery provider Foodpanda had 564 consumer disputes from January to last month and failed to attend many mediation sessions with local governments nationwide, the Executive Yuan’s Consumer Protection Committee said. In a news release earlier this month, the committee said that it investigated consumer complaints and mediations for Foodpanda and rival Uber Eats during the period, when the number of delivery orders jumped due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Uber Eats had 80 consumer disputes, the committee said. Of Foodpanda’s consumer disputes, 368 resulted from delivery drivers canceling orders after customers could not be reached, 108 were related to the quality or quantity
PILLAGING PENGHU: A 7,539-tonne Chinese ship found mining sand in the Formosa Banks area was escorted by several CGA ships to a Kaohsiung harbor The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday announced that it had dispatched ships to intercept Chinese dredging vessels operating in the nation’s territorial waters near Penghu and detained 10 crew members, who were transported to Kaohsiung. A coast guard patrol discovered more than 20 dredging vessels in an area known as the Formosa Banks, 46 nautical miles (85km) southwest of Penghu County’s Cimei islet (七美) at about 5am on Wednesday. The agency responded by dispatching two patrol boats, the 3,000-tonne Kaohsiung and the 500-tonne Penghu, along with two frigates, to intercept the Chinese vessels, while an airborne observation unit was used to monitor
‘HONEYMOON’ IS OVER: A political science professor said that the Tsai administration’s popularity peaked after it successfully contained COVID-19, but is waning President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) and Premier Su Tseng-chang’s (蘇貞昌) approval ratings fell significantly this month in the wake of the government’s handling of the distribution of relief funds and stimulus coupons to people and businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, a poll released yesterday by the New Power Party (NPP) showed. The poll showed that 68 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with Tsai’s performance, down 8.9 percentage points from last month, while 21 percent said they disapproved of her performance. Her approval among respondents aged 20 to 29 fell 14.7 percentage points, the largest decrease when compared with other age
Passengers arriving at Taoyuan International Airport will find that most entrances to both terminals have been sealed off as part of its COVID-19 prevention efforts. Follow the signs and directions posted on the doors to find the nearest entry point. The airport has installed infrared cameras and thermometer guns at all open entrances, and all persons with a temperature of over 37.5 degrees Celsius are prohibited from entering the terminal. In addition, staff will take the temperature of those checking in to their flights in advance at Airport MRT stations A1 and A3. In accordance with the Centers of Disease
RSS