Low-cost airlines threaten the nation’s tourism industry by luring Taiwanese abroad with cheap tickets, making it more important than ever for the government to attract more foreign visitors, experts said.
Taiwan lacks internationally famous attractions like Disneyland, making it hard to pull in families from Europe and the US with just the National Palace Museum or food, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research vice president Wang Jiann-chyuan (王健全) said.
A government plan to promote performances by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (雲門舞集) or Ming Hwa Yuan Taiwanese Opera Company (明華園) could help the cultural industry, while upping the quality of and income from tour groups, Wang said.
His recommendations came after the 9 millionth visitor of the year arrived on Tuesday last week.
The Tourism Bureau is optimistic the number could reach 9.5 million by the end of this year and is confident arrivals will hit 10 million next year.
It also forecast that revenues from tourism could reach NT$380 billion (US$12.22 billion) this year.
However, travel from northern Taiwan to Hualien and Taitung counties can be more expensive than low-cost flights to some countries in Southeast Asia, meaning more Taiwanese could be taking money abroad than foreign guests bring into the country, Providence University associate professor Huang Cheng-tsung (黃正聰) said.
According to bureau statistics, more than 90 percent of the nation’s visitors this year have been from Asia. Arrivals from South Korea grew by 61 percent from last year, while arrivals from China are up 38 percent, Hong Kong and Macau 18 percent, Japan 17 percent and Malaysia 16 percent.
Tayih Landis Hotel Tainan president Yen Hsin-yi (嚴心誼) said Taiwan’s attractions lack overall planning and marketing.
He said authorities should put resources into training tour guides, because “good storytelling is always the best marketing.”
He said that after Hou Hsiao-hsien’s (侯孝賢) film A City of Sadness won a swag of awards, the township where the film was shot — Jiufen (九份), in what is now New Taipei City — many pedestrian shopping areas around the country duplicated the shops and services offered in Jiufen.
Huang said that while Taiwan does not have China’s magnificent landscapes, it does feature a diversity of natural scenery from the sea to mountains, each with their own distinct cultural characteristics that should be promoted.
Taiwan’s hot springs have also been praised as being on par with those in Japan.
Hot Spring Tourism Association Taiwan president Chang Jung-nan (張榮南) said that Taiwan has many kinds of hot springs which are easily accessible, such as one in Yilan County’s Jiaosi Township (礁溪), which is next to the train station.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
RSS