The Tourism Bureau yesterday unveiled 40 recommended itineraries for alpine travel in Taiwan as the centerpiece of its campaign to market this year as the Year of Mountain Tourism.
The bureau released extensive itineraries for seven mountain areas and 33 shorter itineraries.
The two major itineraries in the north include Yangmingshan National Park, Yilan County’s Taipingshan Forest Recreation Area, and the Hsinchu-Miaoli area, featuring Dabajianshan (大霸尖山) and the Guanwu National Forest Recreation Area.
Photo: Tung Chen-kuo, Taipei Times
In central Taiwan, where the nation’s highest peaks are, there are three major itineraries.
One features Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Taroko National Park, one covers Chilai Mountain (奇萊山), Aowanda National Forest Recreation Area and Sun Moon Lake (日月潭), and the third encompasses Yushan (玉山) and the Alishan National Forest Recreation Area.
There are two main itineraries for southern Taiwan — one covering Jiaming Lake (嘉明湖) and Siangyangshan (向陽山) close to the Taitung-Kaoshiung border, and the other spanning Kavulungan (Beidawushan, 北大武山) in Pingtung and the Maolin Scenic Area in Kaohsiung.
The seven main routes each take about seven days to complete, and they start and end at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, the bureau said.
No transportation information was provided on how to get from one place to another, but the bureau said it hopes local travel agencies would embrace the itineraries and develop packages around them.
The campaign is expected to boost mountain-area economies, which often rely on tourism for survival, it said.
A mountain tourism program in the Alishan area last year hosted 16 groups totaling 192 visitors and generated NT$1.92 million (US$64,085) in revenue, the bureau said, adding that it expects 1,200 visitors to make similar trips this year, injecting NT$12 million into the local economy.
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