The Tourism Bureau and Google Taiwan jointly launched a competition yesterday to encourage travelers around the world to share their travel stories about Taiwan and upload the videos to YouTube.
The competition, called “Anytime for Taiwan-Film Taiwan, Action!” is to run for a year.
Competitors need to upload their videos through the “Film Taiwan” section of the Tourism Bureau’s YouTube channel to qualify for first prize, a round-the-world trip.
Photo: CNA
Videos can be about anything from Taiwanese festivals, culture and shopping to local scenic spots.
Meanwhile, the Tourism Bureau is to offer discounts on travel costs in Taiwan at the rate of NT$1 per vote for the videos.
Bureau Director-General David Hsieh (謝謂君) said that the aim is to show Taiwan on the global stage through the competition.
“The tourism industry plays a significant role in Taiwan’s economic development,” Hsieh said.
“We believe this global campaign is the best of two worlds, leveraging technology to bring innovation to the tourism industry... We welcome travelers around the world to upload their videos to YouTube to win an opportunity to become tourism ambassadors for Taiwan,” he said.
Competitors can upload Taiwan travel videos of up to five minutes in length to www.youtube.com/user/taiwanbesttrip before Aug. 15 next year.
In the first round of the competition, 10 entries will be shortlisted, based on the number of votes they receive. The winner is to be picked in a second round of voting.
Hsieh said YouTube has about 1 billion users, and one cannot underestimate the power of communication that can be generated through the video-sharing Web site.
Google managing director for the Greater China area Scott Beaumont said the competition is to help export Taiwan’s beauty to the world.
Statistics from the bureau showed that the number of international visitors to the nation topped 8 million last year and is forecast to reach 9 million this year.
The bureau also found that tourists from overseas found tour information through print media, television and radio broadcasts, but a majority looked online for information on Taiwan.
As a test, the Tourism Bureau uploaded a video to YouTube of a foreigner sharing his views on Taiwan on Tuesday night. It had been viewed more than 10,000 times by yesterday.
Additional reporting by CNA
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS