Taiwan travel industry promotes theme tours at Berlin ITB

Taiwanese airlines, hotels and travel agencies are once again showcasing travel packages, including bicycle tours and visits to aboriginal villages and cultural sites, at one of the world's most important travel fairs, the ITB Berlin.For the past two decades, Taiwan's travel industry has been a mainstay at the show, a major event for inbound travel businesses that this year has a total of 11,000 exhibitors from 180 countries.

"My company has attended the ITB since the late 1980s. It's the best place to meet business counterparts from around the world," said Jean Chang, president of the Golden Foundation Services Group, a leading inbound travel agency in Taiwan.Chang explained that Europe has been an important market for inbound travel businesses in Asia, and that the fair is well attended by American travel agencies also looking for new products.

The show's prestige explains why many Asian countries are putting on big shows at the five-day exhibition, which ends March 13. Taiwan's Tourism Bureau, for instance, has organized a dance troupe to perform folk dances and a paper cutting master to demonstrate his art at the Taiwan pavilion.

The Indonesian pavilion has given demonstrations of how different fruits can be used to paint, and Malaysia has staged dances of a multicultural flavor featuring performers of Malay, Chinese and Indian descent.Though an increasing number of people from China have visited Taiwan in recent years, one of the goals of Taiwan's travel industry at the show is to attract a greater diversity of visitors from around the globe.

"To meet the demand of tourists of various interests, the Tourism Bureau and travel businesses have created some theme tours to Taiwan, including bicycle tours along the island's east coast and tours to folk festivities, " said David Hsieh, deputy director general of the Tourism Bureau.

Citing a prediction by the World Tourism Organization that the Asia-Pacific region would continue to lead global tourism growth, Hsieh said China, Malaysia, Thailand, and Taiwan had all shown remarkable tourism growth in the past year."I believe the trend will continue, " he said, with Taiwan hoping to attract 10 million overseas visitors four years from now after having drawn 5.5 million in 2010.

According to Yeh Pi-hua, secretary-general and executive director of the Taiwan Visitors Association, representatives of Taiwan's inbound travel agencies and hotels had intensive meetings with potential clients at the ITB, and she said the new package tours had left a good impression.But there is more to the ITB than simply trying to drum up new business."ITB is also an important occasion where you can learn from others, " Yeh said.

In addition to visiting pavilions of other countries, Yeh met with Ralf Ostendorf, director of sales of Berlin Tourism Marketing GmbH, a Berlin company in charge of promoting the German capital as a tourist destination worldwide."Over the years, Taiwan's travel industry has become more experienced in exploring the international market. At the ITB, we present, we learn, and we exchange," Yeh said.

Source = focustaiwan.tw