Only a small number of Taiwanese saw a certain TV commercial aired during the Lunar New Year holidays. It was aired only on CNN and far less frequently than commercials promoting telecom businesses or the welfare lottery. The commercial, which came from Thailand, invites everyone to "experience Chinese New Year in Thailand." How creative. How worthy of kudos.
The tourism industry has never received the attention it deserves in Taiwan. After the DPP government came to office, we finally saw some officials view the development of tourism as a key area. The government has vowed to double the number of tourists while private entrepreneurs have opened hotels or signed cooperation contracts with international conglomerates. The tourism industry appears to be gaining vitality and preparing to receive large numbers of tourists.
In reality, however, this is not the case. According to data from the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, 2.32 million people visited Taiwan from January to November last year -- a fall of 3.6 percent compared to the same period the previous year. Many of them were businesspeople visiting the Hsinchu industrial park or expatriates visiting their families. Only 810,000 people visited Taiwan for real tourism purposes.
Neighboring countries do much better. Macau, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand all receive 5 million to 7 million visitors each per year, according to information from the World Tourism Organization. The number of visitors going to Hong Kong and China has always been between 10 million and 20 million a year. Even Japan and South Korea, which both have "tourist surpluses" like Taiwan, can attract almost 4 million visitors each. The feeling of superiority among Taiwanese contrasts strongly with the minuscule perception of this country in the eyes of people around the world. I can't help but ask: Why?
There are many answers to this question. Why is it that Thailand can invite visitors around the world to spend the Lunar New Year there, and yet Taiwan does not know how to take such an opportunity? Singapore's marketing advertisements contain everything from the island's history to culture to food to shopping, while Thailand's ads cover everything from the famed Phuket island and Bangkok to lesser-known places like Hua Hin, Krabi and Hat Yai. In contrast, Taiwan's tourism promotion remains limited to Alishan, Sun Moon Lake and the National Palace Museum. Obviously, Taiwan's tourism promotion is failing.
In world-famous, tourism publications -- such as Conde Nast Traveler and Travel and Leisure -- we can often see both official and private entities from various regions vying to advertise themselves. But ads from Taiwan are absent.
Now take a look at the construction of Web sites. Web sites set up by the tourism departments of Hong Kong and Singapore contain lively, solid content. They even offer interactive games and sometimes gifts. Look at the Web site of our Tourism Bureau (www.tbroc.gov.tw). A large portion of the content is boring, not because it sounds hollow, but because it is too academic.
For example, I believe tourists won't be interested in our rules for setting up hotels. Rather, they would be interested in what kinds of hotels and facilities they can find, or information on transportation and the like. However, the Tourism Bureau Web site will let you know, if you want to invest in a hotel here, how many elevators it must have and how many square meters each room must have. But the Web site does not help a Japanese visitors find lodging with a Japanese restaurant. We have resources, but we do not know how to promote them.
Marketing is an interesting discipline. No matter how beautiful Taiwan is, beauty is useless if we cannot let people know about it. Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore do not have abundant tourism resources like we do, but they can still create a market by relying on effective packaging. We have seen the government's determination to promote tourism, but only with planned, systematic and appropriate marketing can we attract more people's attention. After all, one needs to catch your eyes before one can "touch your heart," as the Tourism Bureau says.
Antony Lin is a research assistant at Providence University.
Translated by Francis Huang
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