Taiwan International Port Corp said it plans to turn part of Anping Port (安平港) in Tainan into a yacht harbor.
The port serves both as a commercial and a tourist facility after it was upgraded to an international seaport, the company said.
The port’s southern side is used as a free-trade area, while the northern side is used for tourism purposes.
Liu Chiu-mei (劉秋梅), chief secretary at the company’s Kaohsiung Port branch, said that the company plans to turn the two zones into a yacht harbor.
The two zones have a land area of about 16.05 hectares and water surface of 6.5 hectares, she said.
Liu said that the company will seek public input on the project at a forum tomorrow, which the company will co-host with the Tainan City Government.
Regarding incentives that the company plans to offer to attract investors or yacht owners, Liu said the company will provide more details by the end of this month after hearing comments at the forum, which could be attended by construction firms, yacht builders and yacht management companies.
Globally renown Taiwanese yacht builders, such as Horizon Yachts and Alexander Marine International, are based in Kaohsiung, Liu said.
In related news, the port company said it has produced a short film to promote Taiwan as a travel destination for large international cruise liners, particularly those bringing tourists from Japan.
The 12-minute film, titled Nice to See You, features a love story between a Taiwanese woman and a Japanese man on a cruise ship, the company said, adding that the premiere of the Japanese-language promotional film is to be held on Saturday next week at Keelung Port.
The premiere is to be followed by a showing of another Japanese-language film, titled The After-Dinner Mysteries, which is based on a novel by Japanese author Tokuya Higashigawa.
The Higashigawa film was also shot on a cruise ship, the company said.
The company said its promotional film presents tourist attractions around Keelung, Taichung, Kaohsiung, Hualien, Anping and Penghu ports in the hope of attracting international cruise passengers.
Statistics provided by the port company showed that 586 international cruise ships stopped at Taiwanese ports last year, bringing in about 820,000 visitors.
The number of international visitors who arrive on the cruise ships can potentially reach 860,000, the company said.
The company estimated that 64 percent of cruise passengers would come from China, 24 percent from Japan, 4 percent from Hong Kong and Macau and 8 percent from Europe and North America.
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