Although the Tourism Bureau spends approximately NT$30 million (US$914,578) a year maintaining the Web sites of 13 national scenic areas under its supervision, a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker found that not only does it take a long time to download the English, Japanese and Korean-language versions of the Web pages of different national scenic areas, but the information is not updated as regularly as those of the Chinese-language version.
DPP Legislator Lee Kun-tse (李昆澤) said that the budget to maintain the Web sites only covers network establishment, maintenance and software installation. He said it takes between 20 and 30 seconds to download the Japanese-language version of the Web page for the Sun Moon Lake National Scenic Area.
Some of these Web pages have been outdated for a long time, he said, adding that the Chinese-language Web page for the East Coast National Scenic Area was updated on Wednesday last week, but the Japanese-language version has not been updated since September 2010. The English-language version has not been updated for nine months, and the scenic area does not have a Korean-language version.
The English, Japanese and Korean-language Web pages for the Sun Moon Lake National Scenic Area has not offered new information for three-and-a-half years.
The Tri-Mountain National Scenic Area Web page’s English-language version was updated on Wednesday last week. However, prior to the change, the information was updated in August 2013 and again in July last year.
The Japanese-language version of the site, checked on Monday last week, still had information on the prevention and control of rabies provided by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, which was then removed on Wednesday.
The bureau has said that the number of Korean tourists grew by 23.34 percent between January and September this year, Lee said, adding that Koreans make up the largest number of international visitors.
Among 13 national scenic area Web pages, seven did not have Korean-language versions.
Though the Penghu and Southwest Coast National Scenic Areas have Web pages translated into Korean, the pages do not provide the latest information.
The Bureau said Japanese and South Koreans are a large market for local tourism and if information is not updated regularly visitors could miss seeing attractions.
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