The Tourism Bureau next month will launch a “buy three, get one free” scheme for Japanese tourists to attract more independent travelers from that nation, bureau Director-General Joe Chou (周永暉) said yesterday.
It was the first time that Chou announced an initiative to boost tourist numbers since he took office in the middle of last month, as the number of Chinese tourists are expected to decline by about 20 percent this year due to cooling cross-strait relations.
Taiwan welcomed 10.43 million foreign tourists last year, with about 40 percent of them from China.
Chou had promised in his inaugural speech to boost the number of Japanese travelers to 2 million within a year of assuming the post.
The bureau is seeking to attract most of the independent travelers from first-tier cities in Japan, including Tokyo and Osaka, Chou said, adding that the bureau will also focus on attracting more tour groups from some of Japan’s second-tier cities.
The “buy three, get one free” plan, in which four independent travelers would only have to pay for the plane tickets of three people, would be a bargain for families as well as for people who wish to travel together, he said.
The plan will have 2,500 sets of tickets, which can attract about 10,000 independent travelers to Taiwan, the bureau said.
It will allocate about NT$10 million (US$316,326) for the plan, the bureau said, adding that the remaining costs would be covered by the airlines and the travel agencies.
Each tourist would be given an EasyCard and other travel information upon their arrival, it added.
Although Japanese tourists are estimated to grow by about 20 percent this year and have the potential to top 1.82 million, the bureau said the market still has plenty of room to expand.
Statistics from the bureau showed that Japan, the first industrialized nation in Asia, has a population of about 120 million, but only about 24 percent of them have a passport.
The number of outbound tourists in Japan was only 16.21 million last year, with most of them heading to China, they showed.
South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong were ranked No. 2, 3 and 4 respectively in terms of top travel destinations for Japanese tourists, the statistics showed.
The bureau said the “buy three, get one free” scheme will run until January next year, adding that it hopes the plan will boost the number of Japanese tourists to Taiwan between next month and December.
Chou also laid out a plan to examine the 13 national scenic areas overseen by the bureau, and divide them into three sections and manage them based on the so-called “6S system” — sort, straighten, shine, standardize, sustain and safety.
Each scenic area would be evaluated by the bureau and representatives from independent parties, he added.
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