Taiwan Today

The Tourism Bureau under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications is taking the three-pronged approach of timely issuance of tourist visas, enhanced marketing coordination between domestic and foreign travel agencies, and new promotional campaigns. The expedited visa program, implemented in November 2014, allows fast-track entry by organized tourist groups from five nations, namely India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. In early July, 110 members of the Thai Travel Association, as well as members of Thailand’s media, were invited to visit Taiwan to hold meetings with 121 of their Taiwan counterparts from the travel and accommodation industries. A highlight of the bureau’s promotional campaign, titled “Light Up Taiwan – Leisure Travel to Lighthouses at Four Extreme Points of Taiwan,” is slated to begin July 23. The campaign encourages travelers from home and abroad to visit the four lighthouses at Taiwan’s outermost points of Fugui Cape in the north, Sandiao Cape in the east, Guosheng Harbor in the west, and Eluanbi in the south. According to the bureau, Taiwan received more than 4.6 million tourists in the first five months of this year, a rise of 10.23 percent from the same period in 2015. The greatest increase in visitors came from South Korea, Japan and Malaysia. (WF-JG) Write to Taiwan Today at ttonline@mofa.gov.tw