Ministry of Transportation and Communications officials are scheduled to arrive in Peru on Sunday for the 12th APEC Tourism Ministerial Meeting, the ministry said in a statement yesterday.
The delegation would be led by Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Kuo-hsien (林國顯) and Tourism Administration Director-General Chou Yung-hui (周永暉), it said.
The theme for this year’s meeting is “Empower. Include, Grow,” the ministry said, adding that the host county has laid out three priorities.
Photo: Tsai Yun-jung, Taipei Times
The first priority is to focus on strengthening open, free and inclusive trade; promoting economic growth that interconnects various sectors of society; and ensuring long-term sustainability, it said.
The second priority is to use innovation and digitalization to promote a transition toward the formalization of economic actors, particularly the most vulnerable, it said.
The third priority is to ensure sustainable growth for resilient development, which seeks to promote energy transition, decarbonization of economic activities and food security, it said.
“Countries around the world are trying to attract international travelers in the post-[COVID-19] pandemic era, and the APEC Tourism Ministerial Meeting is the way to market Taiwan to the world,” Lin was quoted as saying. “We also hope to experience the challenges and opportunities facing the global tourism industry and pursue sustainable tourism with other APEC members.”
The delegation also hopes to learn from the Peruvian tourism authority on how it has developed various theme tours, such as conference and adventure tours, or attracting digital nomads.
In other news, Delta Air Lines is to launch direct flights between Taipei and Seattle today, marking its official return to the market in Taiwan after it left in 2017.
The US-based airline is one of several carriers that offer or will offer Taipei-Seattle direct flights.
China Airlines said that it would relaunch the service that it suspended in 2008 on July 14.
Starlux announced that it aims to launch the service on Aug. 16, while EVA said that it would increase services to 10 flights per week, starting on June 25.
“Compared to other carriers in the market, we have quite a few advantages. One of those is the connectivity in the US,” Delta Air Lines vice president of Asia-Pacific Jeff Moomaw told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
“We also lead our competitors in customer experience. This market is highly correlated to corporate performance and corporate traffic, and we have strong partnerships with corporations in the US and around the world. We believe this would help us to succeed,” he added.
Asked whether Delta would launch more direct flights between Taiwan and the US, Moomaw said that the airline looks at the economic outlook from around the world to see where they can best serve customers.
“We are always exploring new route opportunities. Southeast Asia, [South] Korea and other international markets all have more forward outlooks than the US market in the next 10 years,” he said.
“What we can say is that we are bullish, particularly on the Asia market. You are to see more flight services materialize in the coming years,” he said.
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