The Taipei City Government yesterday announced that six sightseeing spots in the city have earned the Muslim Friendly Environment Certificate.
The Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said its survey on foreign visitors’ consumption behaviors and tendencies while visiting Taipei showed that the most popular sightseeing spots among Muslim visitors are the Ximending (西門町) shopping area, Taipei 101 in Xinyi District (信義) and the historic Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area in Datong District (大同).
Many Muslim visitors recognized Taipei’s environmental hygiene, cross-language communication and friendliness, but some visitors said that they hoped there would be more prayer rooms and Muslim-friendly sights or hotels in the city, the department added.
Photo: Tsai Ssu-pei, Taipei Times
After holding two discussion sessions in July that provided guidance to hotels or sightseeing spots interested in improving their facilities, 28 hotels and six tourist sites received the Muslim Friendly Environment Certificate yesterday.
The six spots are the National Palace Museum, National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Taipei 101, Taipei Children’s Amusement Park, Zhishan Cultural and Ecological Garden (芝山文化生態綠園) and the Discovery Center of Taipei (台北探索館).
Taipei 101’s tourism office director Huang Chiung-hsuan (黃瓊萱) said that the building has installed washlet facilities in the restrooms on the third floor of its shopping center and prayer rooms on the fifth floor, and that it plans to install washlet facilities on the 89th floor observation deck by the end of the year.
Taipei Deputy Mayor Tsai Ping-kun (蔡炳坤) said Taiwan ranked third in non-Organisation of Islamic Cooperation countries, along with Japan and the UK, in MasterCard’s 2019 Global Muslim Travel Index for the first time this year.
“Freedom, diversity and openness” are the main features that make Taipei attractive to visitors, Tsai said, adding that the city will continue to provide refined and respectful services.
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