Assisted by the Alliance Cultural Foundation, the Taitung County Government recently announced its intention to train two groups of taxi drivers in the county, in the hope of establishing a professional tourism taxi business and thereby enhance the quality of tourism in Taitung.
On Nov. 27, Taitung County Commissioner Justin Huang (黃健庭) visited the first group of taxi drivers enrolled in goodwill driver training courses and encouraged them to provide both domestic and foreign passengers with quality service.
The Alliance Cultural Foundation arranged for assistant professor Patrick Su of National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism to teach the taxi drivers at the Visitor Center located in the old railway station on Nov. 29 and early this month.
The tourism goodwill course includes simple English and Japanese conversation on tourist subjects and how to introduce scenic spots, people, culture and the culinary delights of Taitung to visitors to eastern Taiwan, likely to be brought in on future direct flights between Hualien or Taitung and Hong Kong as well as Japan.
The taxi drivers responded well to the training course, which will help them to make visitors to Taitung feel as welcome as possible. Su told Huang and Taitung Department of Culture and Tourism Director Chen Shu-huei (陳淑慧) that the taxi drivers were glad to have the one-day course.
Huang said that taxi drivers were an important part of the effort to promote tourism. After introducing a connecting bus service at the end of June, the county government specifically asked the Alliance Cultural Foundation to invite Su to teach Taitung taxi drivers how best to upgrade the quality of tourism in Taitung.
The county government plans to establish a Taitung Tourism Goodwill Taxi Service Team next year, hoping to provide foreign visitors with diverse, mobile and safe tour guide services by making taxi drivers an integral part of the Taitung tourism development effort.
After the two hour-training course, the top 15 taxi drivers will be selected to form the goodwill tourism taxi service team. The government will then issue them with special identification uniforms and stickers, as well as post related information on the official Taitung County Web site and publicize the taxi service team through its various activities.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard