Tourism to Taiwan from the Middle East jumped 46.63 percent in May, compared with the same month last year, a tourism official said on Monday.
In the first five months of this year, Middle Eastern tourism increased 15.56 percent from the same period last year, while last year the figure had jumped 6.17 percent from the same period in 2017.
The Middle East has been a focus of the nation’s efforts to promote high-end tourism, said Trust Lin (林信任), director of the Tourism Bureau’s Singapore office, which also oversees tourism promotion in the Middle East, India, Australia and New Zealand.
Dubai in the United Arab Emirates is the economic and financial hub of the Middle East, and the purchasing power of people living there is astonishing, he said.
In the first half of the year, Taiwan participated in two international travel and tourism shows — the 25th International Mediterranean Tourism Market in Tel Aviv, Israel, and the 26th Arabian Travel Market in Dubai — where officials spoke to local businesses and sought more business opportunities, he said, calling the latter the “largest professional travel exhibition” in the Middle East.
Taiwan’s participation at the Arabian Travel Market was “highly valued” by Emirates Airline, he said.
The Dubai-based carrier not only became the bureau’s strategic partner, but also listed Taiwan as one of its “focus destinations,” he said.
With the advantage of the strategic partnership, tourist arrivals to Taiwan from the Middle East have gradually risen, he said.
Based on the 46.64 percent growth in tourism from the region in May, Lin said that Dubai is to become the best “entry point” for the promotion of tourism from the Middle East.
Eyeing the potential of the Israeli market, Taiwan in 2017 invited Israeli travel agencies to visit and last year expanded its participation at the International Mediterranean Tourism Market, he said.
It also invited Israeli model Bar Zomer to visit Taiwan and helped Zomer’s boyfriend propose to her at Sun Moon Lake (日月潭), he said, adding that Israel is a market that the bureau has recently begun tapping into.
The bureau every year introduces a new theme as the focus of its efforts.
Last year was named the “Year of Bay Tourism,” while this year’s theme is “Small Town Ramble.”
Next year and in 2021, the bureau is to focus on promoting the nation’s mountains and cycling respectively.
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