A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) councilor yesterday accused the Taipei City Government of not promoting November's Taipei International Flora Expo internationally, while using domestic promotion efforts as a campaign tool for Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin's (郝龍斌) re-election bid.
The expo is the second major international event hosted by Hau's municipal administration following the Deaflympics last year. It will run from Nov. 6 this year through April 25 next year.
Statistics from Taipei City's Department of Information and Tourism showed that the city government has budgeted NT$100 million (US$3 million) to promote the event nationwide and just NT$36 million for international promotion.
A report presented by the department said it is seeking to attract more than 8 million local and 400,000 foreign visitors to the expo.
DPP Taipei City Councilor Wu Su-yao (吳思瑤) said the city government had neglected promoting the expo in other countries because it was using the event as an opportunity to campaign for Hau's re-election in November.
“The international expo is supposed to be a great chance for the world to get to know Taipei better. Instead, the event is being used to let Taiwan see Hau Lung-bin and help him win re-election,” she said at the Taipei City Council.
Wu said the city government had also failed to devote enough effort to promoting the Deaflympics to the international community. The budget for domestic promotion was NT$86 million, while the budget for international promotion was NT$80 million.
The Kaohsiung City Government, she said, budgeted NT$80 million to promote the World Games internationally last year, while the budget for domestic promotion was NT$40 million.
Hau dismissed the criticism, saying the city has been promoting the expo in China, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong, and of the 2.7 million tickets sold so far, 110,000 have been sold to foreigners.
He said he would raise the budget for international promotion to 60 percent and present plans to promote the event to foreign tourists.
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