Taiwan News #7: Taiwan has a banner year in Tourism, with many to come
The wonderful thing about this steady growth, in addition to making a mockery of Beijing's churlish tourism policies, is that Taiwan still possesses tremendous untapped potential for various forms of adventure tourism: paragliding, diving, surfing, cycling, climbing and hiking. At present all of these sports are still in their infancy. In many cases there are informal networks or small firms that bring people over. While many local communities are attempting to tap into local tourist demand for weekend experiences in aboriginal villages like Chimei or Smangus, the government does not seem to realize how marketable such places are to the westerners who have money and crave experience travel.Sure wish the government would grasp the potential for Taiwan tourism...
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4 comments:
An upbeat note for Taiwan tourism in the video – she observes that it's a popular destination with Singaporeans, and a safe place to visit. (Although she doesn't mention that it manages to achieve this without resorting to draconian laws, and countless fines for petty offences, like her home town.)
It's also good evidence that Singlish is alive and well, despite the Government's attempts to encourage what it calls 'standard English', by launching its Speak Good English Movement (SGEM) some years ago. It's been a surprisingly controversial issue there. Some wags even tried to start up a Speak Good Singlish Movement (SGSM): http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2010/09/17/“please-stop-hum-tumming-singlish-just-leebit-alone”/
However, the SGSM Facebook page, which had a strong response, has since been shut down. I wonder whether this might be Singapore Government chill factor, or even direct censorship, at work?
So many amazing places and there's no one there. I for one am in no rush to change that.
Relevant vis a vis Taiwan:
http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/07/us/politics/jared-kushner-trump-business.html
key passage:
"So when the Chinese ambassador to the United States called the white House in early December to express what one official called China's "deep displeasure" at Mr. Trump's break with longstanding diplmoatic tradition by speaking by phone with the president of Taiwan, the White House did not call the president-elect's national security team. Instead it relayed that information through Mr. Kushner, whose company was not only in the midst of discussions with Anbang [A Chinese financial corporation], but also has Chinese investors."
Trump will not be "tough on China". Precisely the opposite. He will fold, and willingly, in order to attempt to enrich himself and his family via business dealings in the PRC. If it means throwing Taiwan under the bus, he will do that.
It strikes me in a way, that Beijing's churlish policies could end up actually helping Taiwan's tourism industry – by making it more attractive as a destination to visitors from other countries. As you've pointed out in the past, there'll now be fewer tour groups swamping popular sites, such as Night Markets, which will most definitely be an improvement.
And perhaps a few subtle countermeasures might also be in order? On my visit to the National Palace Museum, the experience was somewhat diminished by the tsunami of Mainland tour groups clustering behind microphone-toting guides. It strikes me now, that if the management of the NPM had the cojones, they would start nominating at least one or two days a week when these groups are completely banned. After all, if the tour groups are now being cut back, then it should surely be possible to fit the reduced numbers into fewer days each week?
Beijing's strategy has to be questioned here, and could easily backfire. As you've also suggested, the reduction in tour groups will also (hopefully) stimulate Taiwan's industry stakeholders to be a bit more pro-active and entrepreneurial in their thinking.
And the Government's new Southbound Policy should at least include a bit more money invested in advertising in places like Australia ... Comprising at the very least, some bus sides and billboard campaigns (Come to think of it, I don't recall seeing any within living memory).
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