An alliance of travel agencies, hoteliers and transportation providers is hoping its invitations to 30 popular Chinese travel bloggers to visit the Taiwan will help stem the decline in Chinese tourist numbers.
The alliance, Travel Taiwan Version 1.0 (新版遊台灣1.0), said it started inviting the bloggers at the beginning of the year to take in-depth tours covering Taiwan’s art, cultural and culinary scenes and then write about their experiences.
At a Taipei news conference on Monday to promote the program, alliance representatives said the Chinese bloggers have generated 50 million page views in China for their travel stories about Taiwan.
Tourism Bureau international division head Lin Kun-yuan (林坤源) said that the project integrates various resources and the bureau will assist Chinese bloggers in writing about Taiwan.
“These Internet celebrities have different expertise and might discover things that even Taiwanese do not notice in the beginning. Through the stories, photographs and videos that they post online, many tourists from China or other countries can have the latest travel information on Taiwan,” he said. “People are easily touched by this reality-show style presentation about a destination.”
Sixty percent of the international tourists to Taiwan are independent travelers, and the percentage is expected to grow because the nation provides a relatively safe environment for travelers compared with other countries, Lin said.
Taiwan offers a convenient transport system, beautiful natural scenery and Taiwanese are friendly to foreigners, all qualities that can be promoted through diverse platforms, he said.
Chinese blogger Hsu Yuanyuan (徐媛媛) from Tianjin said she likes Taiwan’s shopping scene.
Having visited Taiwan nine times, Hsu said she has a favorite hotel in Taipei because Carrefour and Cosmed outlets are nearby and Ninxia Night Market, Dihua Street and Yungle Fabric Market are within walking distance.
“You rarely see fabric stores in China nowadays because their business has been taken over by online shopping sites. You do not know the quality of the fabrics sold online, but you would not have such a problem if you go to Yongle Fabric Market,” she said.
Blogger Wu Yinyin (吳茵茵) from Guangzhou said she is interested in what Taiwan has to offer outdoor enthusiasts and has registered to climb Yushan (玉山) this month.
Her blog would introduce outdoor events and tourist attractions in Taiwan and help visitors plan their itineraries, she said.
Coincidentally, the news conference was held on the same day Taiwan Visitors Association chairman Janice Lai (賴瑟珍) went to China to meet with officials from the China National Tourism Administration and the Taiwan Affairs Office of Beijing’s State Council.
Her visit to Beijing is part of a bid to relaunch negotiations between the Taiwan Straits Tourism Association and the Association for Tourism Exchange Across the Taiwan Straits.
The two quasi-official agencies handle cross-strait negotiations related to tourism.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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