Bureau targets five global markets to encourage tourism

The Tourism Bureau is targeting five global markets in an effort to realize President Ma Ying-jeou’s goal of increasing annual international tourist arrivals to 10 million within the next decade.

The bureau said it had set specific long-term goals for each of the nation’s major sources of tourism — China, Hong Kong and Macau, Japan, Southeast Asia, Europe and the US. The aim is to attract 5 million visitors per year from China, 2 million from Japan, 1.5 million from Southeast Asia, 1.2 million from Hong Kong and Macau and 0.8 million from Europe and the US, the bureau said.

However, different marketing strategies will be required in each case, Tourism Bureau Deputy -Director-General Wayne Liu  said. For instance, the bureau will promote in-depth tours for women and senior travelers from Japan, while low-budget offers will be available for tourists from Southeast Asia, most of whom are young backpackers, he said.

Visitors from further afield will be offered customized travel packages, Liu said.

“There will be hiking for Austrians and bird watching for the British, just to name a few,” he said.

Already, some of the bureau’s preliminary efforts have borne fruit, as evidenced by the record-high visitor arrivals last month from some countries.

There were 122,908 visitors from Japan, 122,754 from China and 19,338 from Singapore.

In a speech on Monday, Ma said one of the pillars of his “golden decade” vision was an increase in visitor arrivals to 10 million per year.

Source - taipeitimes