LOOKING SOUTH EPISODE #24 – Attracting Southeast Asian Tourists to Taiwan

In today’s episode of Looking South, Eric Gau speaks with Urna Chen, the deputy director-general of the Tourism Bureau.

Transcription:

Eric Gau: Good morning everyone, I’m Eric Gau, and you’re tuned in to Looking South, here on ICRT. Today, we’re looking at government efforts to attract more tourists from Southeast Asian countries under the New Southbound Policy. To tell us about that, we are joined by Urna Chen, the deputy director-general of the Tourism Bureau. Ms. Chen, welcome to the program.

Urna Chen: Good morning, Eric, and everybody.

Eric: Please tell us about how tourist numbers from New Southbound Policy target countries have developed since the policy was first introduced over a year ago.

Urna: The number of tourists visiting Taiwan has reached 1.79 million in 2016. From January to July this year, there were 1.17 million tourists who came from the ten countries in ASEAN, accounting for 19.7 percent of the total. Six of the ASEAN countries had more than ten thousand tourists visit Taiwan. They are: Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia. The economies of ASEAN members are rising, and there are more budget airlines serving the region. This has led to a rapid growth in outbound travel. Taiwan, being centrally located in Asia, beginning in 2016, granted visa-free entry to visitors from Thailand and Brunei, broadened visa application simplification procedures for group tourists coming from the 10 ASEAN countries, and loosened requirements for e-visa applicants. This is aimed at making Taiwan tourism more attractive and to bring about a fast pace of growth in ASEAN countries’ visitors coming to Taiwan.

Eric: You mentioned things like visa waivers and e-visas. What other measures have been put in place as part of the policy to help attract more visitors from Southeast Asian countries to Taiwan?

Urna: Our bureau is promoting a plan to develop tourism talent, including holding on-the-job consulting and training of travel industry staff, increasing the subsidies for tour groups to hire Southeast Asian tour translators and help them get tour guide certificates and make sure they can stay in Taiwan and get more job opportunities. Secondly, we have signed an MOU with National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality to train ethnically Chinese Southeast Asian students and new immigrants. Classes began in May, with the first group of students being trained in Vietnamese. In the second half of this year, we plan to hold classes in the northern, central, southern, and eastern parts of Taiwan. We estimate we will turn out 200 people who can tap into the New Southbound Policy market. At the same time, we are amending the laws to allow English and Japanese tour guides to receive tour groups from the New Southbound areas.

Eric: Ms. Chen, in your view, what are some of the challenges that Taiwan is facing as it seeks to diversify its sources of tourism?

Urna: Firstly, it’s the increase in competition in the travel industry. With the economic development in various countries, tourism has become an important industry. Asian countries’ economies are growing fast, creating endless business opportunities. Every country in the world wants them to visit their country. So I think it is nowadays very tough if we want to expand our tourism industry. Secondly, I think the information about new Southbound Policy market are insufficient. The industry’s transition tends to adopt an attitude of ‘wait and see’. So we have taken the approach leading to the development of this market. We need long-term cultivation, or diversified and two-way reciprocity strategy to guide the local integration of resources.

Eric: What are the next steps going forward as the government continues its efforts to attract more Southeast Asian vacationers?

Urna: Since 2016, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications has developed four major promotion strategies over the tourism development action program to attract tourism from New Southbound countries, which are attracting, directing, retaining, and repeating tourists. This action program will increase markets for Taiwan’s tourism industry, as well as enhance friendship, familiarity, and recognition between the people of New Southbound Policy countries and Taiwan. In 2016, the number of tourists from New Southbound Policy target countries visiting Taiwan had reached 1.78 million, which accounts for 17 percent of all tourist arrivals to Taiwan. There was 1.17 million tourists in the first seven months of 2017, so the number is growing fast. To increase the number of ASEAN tourists visiting Taiwan, we plan to set up more service offices in the ASEAN market to provide tourist and travel information. In response to digital and mobile communication trends, we want to upgrade Taiwan’s tourism information office web sites with Southeast Asian language versions and call to independent travelers as the main target users. We are also organizing Halal cooking courses, integrating central and local Muslim food certification information for overseas marketing, and held Southeast Asian language tour guide training and guided tour training to boost our manpower in the travel service sector. Actually, Taiwan’s tourism competitiveness is ranked 30th in the world. Taiwan is also considered the most livable place for expatriates. The local cuisines, mountain and coastal scenery, and science and technology innovation have all become the tourism soft power that Taiwan can be proud of. In 2020, we estimate that there will be 10 million tourists visiting Taiwan, and 25 percent will be tourism from the New Southbound Policy target countries. We think tourism is one of the channels that can bring people closer.

Eric: We’ve been speaking with Tourism Bureau deputy director general, Urna Chen. Miss Chen, thank you again for taking the time to speak with us today.

Urna: Thank you.

Eric: And that’s it for this weeks’ episode of Looking South. I’m Eric Gau, and thank you all for tuning in.

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