Taking a leaf from the book of Australia’s “best job in the world” tourism promotion, the Tourism Bureau plans to launch its own dream job project to promote local attractions, an official said yesterday.
The Tourism Bureau plans to select 50 pairs of backpackers to visit Taiwan for four days, paying each person NT$7,000 per day, said Liu Hsi-lin (劉喜臨), of the bureau’s international affairs department.
BLOGS
“These 50 pairs should travel around Taiwan and create blogs to describe their experiences and the sites they see. From the 50 pairs, we will select one pair and pay them NT$1 million [US$30,000] to travel around Taiwan for a month and post their findings on their blog each day, so that people around the world can see the articles and photos,” he said.
The blogs will be in English.
ONLINE VOTE
The Tourism Bureau plans to nominate 25 pairs and let online voters select the other 25. People from all countries, regardless of gender and age, can apply — except for Chinese candidates, as Chinese can only visit Taiwan as part of a tour group under Taiwanese law.
The Tourism Bureau plans to set up a Web site for applications on June 1.
Australia’s “dream job” promotion was launched by Queensland tourism authorities to find a caretaker for an uninhabited islet for six months for a salary of A$150,000 (US$100,000).
More than 30,000 candidates applied.
Tourism Queensland said it would announce the winner next Wednesday, and the six-month posting will begin on July 1.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
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