Taiwan has stepped up efforts to attract European tourists and realize its goal of doubling tourist arrivals by 2008, a tourism official said on Wednesday.
Huang Lan-hsuan (黃藍萱), a Tourism Bureau official stationed in Frankfurt, Germany, made the remarks at a promotional presentation held in Rome on Wednesday evening.
Taiwan's ambassador to the Vatican Tu Chu-sheng (杜筑生) and Representative to Italy Lin Chi-cheng (林基正) also attended the presentation, which was organized by the Taipei Tourism Office in Frankfurt and the Italian office of China Airlines (CAL).
More than 70 travel agencies in Rome and nearby areas sent staff members to the presentation in which Huang introduced the nation's tourist resources. The participants were also feted with a variety of Taiwanese dishes and snacks. A similar presentation was to be held in Milan yesterday.
Huang said the bureau hopes to attract 37,000 Germans, 35,000 Britons, 23,000 French, 5,000 Italians, 4,000 Spaniards and 5,000 Scandinavians to make pleasure trips to Taiwan this year.
"All of our promotional programs have so far proceeded smoothly and we have confidence in presenting a satisfactory score card by the end of the year," Huang said. "If all promotional projects are carried out in line with our goals, the number of total European tourists to Taiwan will reach 160,000 by 2008."
Huang said the bureau has adopted many measures to introduce tourist attractions to European tour operators and pros-pective individual holidaymakers, including taking part in travel fairs, organizing evening presentations and cooperating with airlines in offering tour packages.
She said the Taipei Tourism Office in Frankfurt had established promotional networks in France and Britain by cooperating with public relations firms.
Chen Fai-fan (陳非凡), general manager of CAL's Italian office, said the airline hoped to attract more than 12,000 Italian passengers to Asia on its flights annually.
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