The past few months have been a major disappointment for the tourism industry, with a golden opportunity — the opening to China — failing to deliver. With many travel agencies complaining that they have yet to see any benefits from the increased quota for cross-strait tourism, it would seem that the impetus to bolster the tourism industry will have to come from elsewhere.
This week the Tourism Bureau made an overture to the Discovery Channel, inviting it to do another program on Taiwan — this time on next February’s lantern festival.
The bureau touted a one-hour program aired on the channel in the US this summer, a segment of which was devoted to Taiwan’s lantern festival celebrations. Officials are hoping to woo the producers back, promising that next year’s festivities — in particular the Taiwan Lantern Festival hosted by Ilan County — would be even more spectacular.
But the bureau’s praise, arguing that the short segment shown last year had given Taiwan “a spot on the world stage,” was, if anything, reflective of Taiwan’s all too unambitious efforts to advertise itself to potential travelers in other countries.
Watch CNN and you will see some very enticing commercials for South Korea, India, Malaysia, Singapore and China. Slogans like “Seoul: Soul of Asia” and “Malaysia, truly Asia” accompany images of the colorful traditions, culinary delicacies and beautiful scenery of these destinations. Rather than hoping the Discovery Channel would drop in to film the Pingsi Sky Lantern Festival again, why not be more ambitious in broadcasting images of this stunningly beautiful celebration to the world?
And by the world, we do not mean only China. Tourism officials would do well to focus more energy on other markets.
The government has hit a brick wall with China, where tight restrictions on which agencies can sell packages to Taiwan have made a mockery of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) prediction of Chinese hordes crowding the nation’s tourist spots on a daily basis.
The cross-strait weekend flights that began in July have proved more popular with commuting businesspeople than tourist groups — and then primarily with people wanting to fly in and out of Taipei.
But the Tourism Bureau has not given up, inviting representatives from dozens of Chinese travel agencies to tour the nation next month and organizing promotional events in several Chinese cities. At the heart of the disappointing numbers of Chinese visitors, however, are politics and Beijing’s lack of interest in reciprocation.
While Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) said last month that adding cross-strait flights would bring more Chinese, the fact is that some of the existing weekend routes have already been suspended because of a lack of passengers. No one in China, it seems, is interested in Kaohsiung.
In that context, doting on the Chinese market may not pay off for some time to come. An equally good place to seek new visitors would therefore be other Asian countries, where the government could promote Taiwan more vigorously.
A single appearance on the Discovery Channel does not constitute a “spot on the world stage” any more than the Lantern Festival represents all that Taiwan has to offer.
Ambitious results only come from ambitious efforts. After years of observing lazy bureaucrats doing the work of professional marketers and being oblivious to their failings, the depressing question that follows is if this situation can ever change.
The first Donald Trump term was a boon for Taiwan. The administration regularized the arms sales process and enhanced bilateral ties. Taipei will not be so fortunate the second time around. Given recent events, Taiwan must proceed with the assumption that it cannot count on the United States to defend it — diplomatically or militarily — during the next four years. Early indications suggested otherwise. The nomination of Marco Rubio as US Secretary of State and the appointment of Mike Waltz as the national security advisor, both of whom have expressed full-throated support for Taiwan in the past, raised hopes that
Whether in terms of market commonality or resource similarity, South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co is the biggest competitor of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC). The two companies have agreed to set up factories in the US and are also recipients of subsidies from the US CHIPS and Science Act, which was signed into law by former US president Joe Biden. However, changes in the market competitiveness of the two companies clearly reveal the context behind TSMC’s investments in the US. As US semiconductor giant Intel Corp has faced continuous delays developing its advanced processes, the world’s two major wafer foundries, TSMC and
Authorities last week revoked the residency permit of a Chinese social media influencer surnamed Liu (劉), better known by her online channel name Yaya in Taiwan (亞亞在台灣), who has more than 440,000 followers online and is living in Taiwan with a marriage-based residency permit, for her “reunification by force” comments. She was asked to leave the country in 10 days. The National Immigration Agency (NIA) on Tuesday last week announced the decision, citing the influencer’s several controversial public comments, including saying that “China does not need any other reason to reunify Taiwan with force” and “why is it [China] hesitant
We are witnessing a sea change in the government’s approach to China, from one of reasonable, low-key reluctance at rocking the boat to a collapse of pretense over and patience in Beijing’s willful intransigence. Finally, we are seeing a more common sense approach in the face of active shows of hostility from a foreign power. According to Article 2 of the 2020 Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法), a “foreign hostile force” is defined as “countries, political entities or groups that are at war with or are engaged in a military standoff with the Republic of China [ROC]. The same stipulation applies to
RSS