The media must take responsibility for the distorted reports on groups of Chinese tourists brought over by Amway China.
Media have, for example, reported that Taiwan stands to make a profit of NT$600 million (US$17.7 million) from the nine groups. But Taiwanese tourists have brought that much money to China tens or hundreds of times over.
Media also quoted some of the tourists saying they didn’t care if they reached the limit on their credit cards and others saying they had so much money that they couldn’t spend it all. Others even opened their wallets to show their bills to the camera.
Exaggerated coverage gives the public a negative impression of the situation. The average income in Taiwan is several times higher than that in China, so why does our worth seem to plunge whenever Chinese tourists arrive? What are the media implying?
Ridiculously incorrect reports that are subjective and biased often attract criticism. As one expert said: “The media is welcome to report on the visits by the Amway groups, but there is no need to go into such extreme detail. Reporting what they buy and eat is of little public benefit.”
Propaganda by pan-blue media and excessive promotion by tourism authorities on both sides of the Taiwan Strait lead tourists to believe they need to demonstrate how wealthy they are to show their sincerity. The result is the opposite and wounds the feelings and dignity of the Taiwanese. Businesspeople are also misled, as they fail to grasp the infrastructure, manpower and services needed to promote Taiwanese culture.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and his government have bragged about the expected numbers of tourists from China and their buying power, but both have fallen far short of expectations.
When the government lifted its ban on Chinese tourists in July, the average number of visitors from China was 164 per day. After it extended the cross-strait charter flights from weekends to weekdays in December, the number increased to 363 per day, and to 667 in January.
Since the Chinese government does not want to lose face, it has started to manipulate tourism to Taiwan through a “group in, group out” policy, boosting the number to more than 2,000 per day in recent weeks, in addition to the Amway groups.
Meanwhile, many Chinese provinces and cities are now promoting trips to Taiwan by “tens of thousands of people,” planning charter flights or trips via the “small three links.”
It seems the domestic tourism industry’s goal of 3,000 Chinese tourists per day will be met soon, as a total of 3,938 Chinese tourists entered Taiwan on March 16.
But even if 3,000 Chinese tourists visited Taiwan every day, the total number would only be around 1 million per year, compared with a total of 330,000 last year. But the number of Taiwanese tourists visiting China is 4 million per year, and Taiwanese tourists have greater buying power.
The imbalance is obvious, yet the media are deliberately ignoring it.
Boosting the tourism industry is just a part of Taiwan’s efforts to boost its economy and not the whole picture.
Sustainable efforts would require looking at other parts of the world and attracting tourists from other countries rather than focusing on the Chinese market alone.
This is all the more important as some Chinese tour groups are charging less than NT$10,000 for a three-day visit to Taiwan.
Lu I-ming is the former publisher and president of the Taiwan Shin Sheng Daily News.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
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