Sanxiantai is connected to the coast of Taitung by the landmark Eight Arch Bridge. (Photo by Central News Agency)
The sustainable tourism development strategy is adding luster to Taiwan’s appeal as a leading Asian travel destination.
Last February, Joe Chou (周永暉), director-general of the Tourism Bureau under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, announced the Taiwan Lantern Festival will be staged in southern Taiwan’s Chiayi and Pingtung counties in 2018 and 2019, respectively. One of the country’s major tourist attractions since its launch 27 years ago in Taipei City, the event has been hosted by a different region annually since 2001 and regularly attracts large numbers of participants from home and abroad.
Starting from the 15th day of the first month on the lunar calendar, the 2017 edition of the festival took place Feb. 11-19 in western Taiwan’s Yunlin County. It recorded more than 13 million visits and was all the more special for a 23-meter-high main lantern resembling a rooster—the year’s auspicious animal in the Chinese zodiac—erected next to Taiwan High Speed Rail’s Yunlin Station.
According to Chou, the Chiayi and Pingtung festivals are targeted for heavy promotion under the government’s sustainable tourism development strategy. Unveiled in February, the four-year initiative coordinates central and local government efforts and resources in boosting domestic travel and increasing foreign visits to 11.79 million by 2020. Bureau statistics revealed that Taiwan achieved a record 10.69 million visits last year, up threefold from 3.52 million a decade before.
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Presidential Vision
In an address coinciding with the launch of the strategy, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said the government would leave no stone unturned in fostering well-balanced tourism development around the country on the basis of a smart, experiential model aimed at diversifying source markets. Such efforts are in line with the U.N.’s 2017 International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development, which comprises five main goals: inclusive and sustainable economic growth; social inclusiveness, employment and poverty reduction; resource efficiency, environmental protection and climate change; cultural values, diversity and heritage; and mutual understanding, peace and security.
Since taking office last May, Tsai said she has observed an increasing number of foreign tourists visiting the Presidential Office Building, with many from Southeast Asia—a target area of the government’s New Southbound Policy. A key plank in the national development strategy, the policy seeks to deepen Taiwan’s agricultural, business, cultural, education, trade and tourism links with the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states, six South Asian countries, Australia and New Zealand.
As part of this initiative, the government has prioritized streamlining entry procedures for those visiting Taiwan from the 18 countries. In August 2016, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs included Brunei and Thailand on the list of nations granted visa-free privileges, directly contributing to a 90 percent surge in arrivals from the latter for April year on year. The same treatment, already afforded to nationals of Malaysia and Singapore, was extended to citizens of the Philippines in June. As a result, arrivals from ASEAN, as well as Bhutan and India, rose 15.76 percent to over 1.68 million year on year in 2016, bureau data showed.
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Complementary Measures
Other measures aimed at boosting Taiwan’s appeal as a tourism destination include increasing subsidies for incentive group travelers visiting for more than four days to attend cultural performances and receptions. Regions and countries included in the program are ASEAN, Australia, Bhutan, India and New Zealand.
Bureau statistics revealed that more than 42,000 individuals in 297 incentive travel groups from over 10 countries visited Taiwan last year, generating an estimated NT$800 million (US$26.5 million) in tourism revenue. In 2015, the country’s total international tourism receipts reached a record NT$458.9 billion (US$15.2 billion), nearly tripling over the last 10 years.
As the government sets about attracting more visitors from abroad, an array of upgrades to relevant language services and social infrastructure is underway. Of these, the bureau is running tour guide certification courses for new immigrants and overseas compatriot students from Southeast Asia. Christopher Hsu (許晉睿), chairman of Taipei-based Travel Quality Assurance Association (TQAA), views this move as compatible with his philosophy that tourism is about more than just eating, drinking and sightseeing.
“It touches on a wide range of areas like education, environmental protection, language and public order,” he said. “In essence, the maturity of a tourism sector reflects the competence or quality levels of a society.”
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Established in 1989, TQAA counts nearly all of Taiwan’s 3,500 travel agencies among its membership. Of these, around 200 specialize in foreign tourists, including those from mainland China. Over the past few years, TQAA members have started catering for visitors from Muslim-majority countries, especially those covered by the New Southbound Policy.
According to Chou, the bureau is capitalizing on this trend by rolling out a series of marketing campaigns promoting Taiwan as a Muslim-friendly destination and assisting more local businesses gain halal certification. In addition, it is running tailored campaigns for the Japanese, South Korean and Western markets. These feature celebrities such as actress Masami Nagasawa from Japan, actor Yeo Jin-goo from South Korea and Malan Breton, a Taiwan-born fashion designer based in the U.S.
Chou is firmly of the opinion that these campaigns helped Taiwan achieve a 2.4 percent year-on-year rise in foreign visitor arrivals for 2016. The three biggest gains were made in the markets of South Korea, 34.25 percent; Japan, 16.5 percent; and Malaysia, 9.95 percent.
Personal Touch
Celebrity ambassadors certainly add heft to a country’s international tourism promotion campaign. But when it comes to making a real difference on the front line, there is nothing like the visit of a high-profile political figure. Toward the end of last March, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) led a delegation of public, private and academic sector representatives on an eight-day trip to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and New Delhi.
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Widely hailed a resounding success by the local media, the tour of the capital cities was co-organized by Chien Yu-yen (簡余晏), head of the Department of Information and Tourism under Taipei City Government. “We arranged and attended a number of events centering on tourism and business exchanges,” she said.
“The personal touch demonstrated our determination to cultivating the South and Southeast Asia markets, while at the same time strengthening Taipei’s pull as a regional magnet for tourism.”
Boasting an abundance of cultural, environmental and historical assets, Taipei is increasingly viewed as an emerging tourism hot spot in Asia. This is evidenced by the 2016 rankings released by New York-based MasterCard Inc. last April. Among the 171 surveyed cities, resorts and towns in 22 countries across the Asia-Pacific region, Taipei finished 10th with 7.4 million international overnight arrivals, up from less than 7 million in 2015.
The result was particularly significant as Taipei overshadowed big name destinations such as Bali, Shanghai and Sydney in popularity. According to MasterCard, Japan and mainland China are the city’s two largest sources of arrivals and, in terms of total expenditure and average daily spend per arrival, it ranked fourth and fifth at US$9.9 billion and US$208, respectively.
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Taking Aim
Chien said while Taipei’s performance in the rankings is a source for much optimism, the local government is not resting on its laurels. “The goal is now to raise the visitor satisfaction level, drive up the return rate and extend the average length of stay from nearly a week last year,” she said.
One of the more eye-catching measures designed to reach this target, Chien said, is a fleet of red hop-on, hop-off double-decker buses launched in January by the city. “We’re offering visitors a new way to explore the city from a different perspective.”
Departing from Taipei Main Station, the two-line service takes passengers on a tour of such sites as National Palace Museum; North Gate, an authentic Qing dynasty (1644-1911) structure that re-emerged in 2016 after 39 years following demolition of the nearby concrete overpass to Zhongxiao Bridge; Taipei 101, the tallest green-certified structure in the world; and Ximen shopping area in Wanhua District.
With the second deck only partially covered on clear days, the buses are replete with all the mod cons a tourist could crave like free smartphone charging, Wi-Fi and tour guide services available through an app in languages including Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean. This is perhaps a reason for the 18 percent rise in daily average ridership to 418 for May from the month before, local government data revealed.
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Green and Growing
In addition to a bevy of cultural attractions, Taipei’s environment gives it a real advantage over many of Taiwan’s other cities and counties in the national tourism stakes. “Unlike many other countries lying on the Tropic of Cancer, Taiwan is blessed with a high degree of biodiversity,” Chien said, adding that as a result, the mountain-ringed city is home to a mind-boggling number of bird and butterfly species.
Taiwan proper possesses a land mass of 36,000 square kilometers and 260-plus mountain peaks reaching over 3,000 meters. This unique topography gives rise to more than 600 bird and 400 butterfly species, with 27 and 58 endemic, respectively, according to Taipei-based Chinese Wild Bird Federation and Butterfly Conservation Society of Taiwan.
Given the country’s enviable position at the top of the global table for flora and fauna density, it comes as no surprise the bureau has designated 2017 as the year of ecotourism, followed by the themes of bays, small towns and mountain ranges, respectively, over the next three years. This year’s campaign includes collaboration with local travel agencies on environmental tours taking in Taiwan’s natural splendors spanning such activities as bird-, butterfly-, dolphin-, firefly- and whale-watching.
For Chou, it is imperative Taiwan casts its net far and wide in creating appealing and innovative travel products. “The World Tourism Organization puts Asia-Pacific tourism on a growth track of 5.7 percent annually, with 355 million tourists expected to travel abroad by 2020,” he said, adding that the country must be ready to catch this wave.
“There’s so much more to see than flagship sites like Sun Moon Lake in central Taiwan and Alishan in southern Taiwan. I’ve every confidence that with plenty of hard work, the country’s brand can be built into the best in Asia.”
