Tourism Bureau Director-General Chou Yung-hui (周永暉) was yesterday grilled by DPP lawmakers who vowed to strictly scrutinize the bureau’s international marketing budget following a series of reported blunders in its materials aimed at the US market.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators Cheng Pao-ching (鄭寶清) and Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) mentioned blogger Kathy Cheng’s criticism of the bureau’s efforts and criticized the bureau for blocking her from commenting on its social media accounts.
Noting the bureau budgets about NT$1 billion (US$33.41 million) annually for overseas campaigns, Lin asked how the money is spent.
The contractor in charge of the campaign for Middle Eastern nations, who was paid NT$15 million, had created a Web site for free, but the site has only attracted about 6,000 page views, Lin said.
The bureau’s Web site aimed at Vietnamese has only 600 page views, while a site in Indonesian on Taiwan was not been authorized by the bureau and has been accused of copyright infringement, Lin said.
Chou said the bureau would review all these problems and seek to address them at meetings with officials at its overseas branches.
Cheng also took aim at the Ministry of Transportation and Communications over the bureau’s NT$40 million travel subsidy program announced on May 15 for tour groups that visit southern Taiwan and Penghu County.
Tourist visits to Chiayi County dropped by almost 40 percent last year, and yet the county was not included in the subsidy scheme.
The ministry would recommend that Executive Yuan include the county in the program, Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Chi Wen-chung (祁文中) said.
Under the program, members of tour groups whose itineraries include weekday visits to destinations or tourism to any of five areas — the Siraya National Scenic Area in Tainan, the Maolin National Scenic Area in Kaohsiung, the East Coast National Scenic Area or the Penghu National Scenic Area — and who spend at least one night in one of the areas, would receive NT$500 per day for accommodation.
However, the subsidies are capped at NT$30,000 per group for those visiting eastern or southern Taiwan, and NT$50,000 per group for Penghu, the bureau said.
Independent tourists traveling in a group of at least three are also eligible for an accommodation subsidy as long as they spend two consecutive nights at the same hotel: the second night’s stay would be free.
READY: The CGA said it closely monitored China’s maritime exercise, deployed vessels to shadow the Chinese ships one-on-one and set up emergency response centers Chinese navy and coast guard ships have returned to China, signaling the end of a massive maritime exercise, authorities said yesterday. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) released images it said showed Chinese vessels sailing north in rough seas past Taiwan on Thursday, on their way to China. “All the Chinese coast guard went back to China yesterday, so although they have not officially made any announcement, we consider it over,” CGA Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said. Beijing has not confirmed the drills and the Chinese Ministry of National Defense did not say whether the maneuvers had taken place when asked at a
People can take the Taipei MRT free of charge if they access it at Nanjing Sanmin Station or Taipei Arena Station on the Green Line between 12am and 6am on Jan. 1, the Taipei Department of Transportation said on Friday, outlining its plans to ease crowding during New Year’s events in the capital. More than 200,000 people are expected to attend New Year’s Eve events in Taipei, with singer A-mei (張惠妹) performing at the Taipei Dome and the city government’s New Year’s Eve party at Taipei City Hall Plaza, the department said. As people have tended to use the MRT’s Blue or
PUBLIC TRANSPORT: As some roads would be fully or partially closed, people are advised to take the MRT, with services expanded to accommodate more riders This year’s Taipei Marathon, which has obtained its first gold label certification from World Athletics, is to be held from 5am to 1pm tomorrow and would have 28,000 participants. The race is to start from the Taipei City Plaza and would go through major roads throughout the city, with traffic control implemented from 6am to 2pm, officials said. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system and New Taipei City MRT Circle line would start operating at 5am on the day of the race, they said. The race would cover Renai Road, Xinyi Road, Hangzhou S Road, Aiguo east and west roads,
Taiwanese professional baseball should update sports stadiums and boost engagement to enhance fans’ experience, Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) commissioner Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview on Friday. The league has urged Farglory Group and the Taipei City Government to improve the Taipei Dome’s outdated equipment, including relatively rudimentary television and sound systems, and poor technology, he said. The Tokyo Dome has markedly better television and sound systems, despite being 30 years old, because its managers continually upgraded its equipment, Tsai said. In contrast, the Taipei Dome lacked even a room for referees
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