Two former Philippine beauty queens were invited by the Tourism Bureau to shoot travel videos promoting Taiwan as a tourist destination to Southeast Asians.
The bureau said that Maggie Wilson and Parul Shah were Miss Philippines in 2007 and 2014 respectively, adding that both Wilson and Shah are Internet celebrities in the Philippines.
It said it hopes that they can promote Taiwan as an attractive travel destination with their youthful energy, fresh eyes for a new culture and popularity online.
Photo: CNA
Southeast Asian tourists are interested in the fried food available at night markets, traditional Taiwanese snacks and spicy hotpot because of their preference for strong-flavored food, the bureau said.
They are also interested in shopping in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義), buying pineapple cakes and nougat, as well as visiting theme parks or leisure farms, it said.
To attract more Southeast Asian visitors, the bureau worked with Sony Asia to shoot three 30-second promotional videos featuring shopping, food and romance.
The videos are to be aired on the AXN and Animax channels in the Philippines from Feb. 15, as well as in other Southeast Asian nations, the bureau said.
The videos feature some of the hottest tourist attractions for first-time visitors to Taiwan, including Taipei’s Ximending (西門町) area, Taipei 101, Xinyi District and the Eslite bookstore in Songshan District (松山).
They also highlight pearl milk tea, steamed buns, spicy hotpot and other Taiwanese snacks, as well as Jiufen (九份), the Sky Lantern Festival in New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) and Yangmingshan (陽明山).
Bureau statistics show that about 1.41 million Southeast Asians visited the nation between January and November last year, marking a 14.19 percent increase compared with same period the previous year.
About 700,000 visited for tourism-related purposes, an increase of 14.57 percent compared with 2015.
The new project complements the government’s “new southbound policy,” which aims to enhance Taiwan’s relations with nations in Southeast Asia and South Asia, as well as Australia and New Zealand, Tourism Bureau Deputy Director-General Wayne Liu (劉喜臨) said.
Liu described as “a positive development” the fall in the percentage of Chinese visitors, about 35 percent of total tourists last year, compared with 40 percent in 2014 and 2015.
The number of tourists from the Philippines rose to 168,000 last year, up 20 percent from the previous year, Liu said, adding that the bureau is looking to attract at least 220,000 tourists from the Southeast Asian nation this year.
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