The Tourism Administration plans to set up a branch office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, next year as part of its efforts to attract Muslim tourists, agency Director-General Chou Yung-hui (周永暉) said yesterday.
The original plan was to set up operations in Dubai, which has direct flights to Taiwan, in 2020, but it was put on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chou said.
“With an operational base in Dubai, we will have more opportunities to travel to the Middle East to promote Taiwan as a tourist destination and invite tour operators there to scout for potential tour routes in Taiwan,” he said.
Photo: Bloomberg
Taiwan this year ranked No. 3 in the Mastercard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index among travel destinations that are not part of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the agency said, adding that Taiwan has been rated as one of the top three non-OIC destinations since 2019.
Last year, Taiwan received “the Most Inclusive Non-OIC Destination” award from the CrescentRating’s annual “Halal Travel Award,” it said.
To create a Muslim-friendly environment, Taiwan has set up Muslim prayer rooms at international airports, major railway stations, freeway service areas and national scenic areas, it said.
The number of halal-certified hotels and restaurants across the nation has increased to 384, it said.
In related news, a delegation of tourism officials and industry representatives on Sunday left for North America to promote tours to Taiwan, the agency said.
The delegation, which comprises travel agents, hoteliers and airline operators, as well as Tourism Administration and local tourism officials, is scheduled to have three meetings with tourism industry representatives in Canada and the US, it said.
Meetings are to be held in Vancouver today, Los Angeles on Thursday and New York on Monday next week, it said.
This is the first tourism delegation organized by the Tourism Administration after it was upgraded from the Tourism Bureau on Friday last week.
“We hope that these three meetings would inspire more tour operators in North America to organize package tours to Taiwan,” it said.
The delegation has also prepared marketing events featuring Taiwanese food and beverages, it said.
As of July, Taiwan had 325,000 tourist arrivals from the US and Canada, about 75 percent of the 2019 level, agency statistics showed. The return of tourists from North America is the highest among all long-haul tourism markets, it said.
Air passengers traveling between Taiwan and North America had returned to 80 percent of pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels by last month, Taoyuan International Airport Corp said.
Eighty percent of the transit passengers at Taoyuan airport came from the US during the past eight months, it said.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
DRONE CENTRAL: Taiwan aims to become Asia’s democratic hub for drones, with most exports focused on high-quality military-grade models, an official said Taiwan’s drone industry is expected to expand significantly by 2030, producing 100,000 units per month and exporting half of them, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Current drone production capacity is about 15,000 units per month, but the industry can quickly scale up as demand increases, Industrial Development Administration Director-General Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s drone output grew 2.5-fold last year to NT$12.9 billion (US$408.3 million) under a government program to develop the uncrewed vehicle sector, he said. The Executive Yuan in October last year approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion into domestic production of uncrewed aerial
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
WARNING: China should stop engaging in actions that undermine regional peace and stability, as it would only build resentment among people across the Strait, the CGA said China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in waters from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and the western Pacific since US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in Beijing, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. “In this part of the world, #China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu wrote on X. In a separate post, he said Beijing was coercing Taiwan’s maritime domain, calling it illegal and provocative, after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled a
RSS