As tourism between Taiwan and South Korea grows, the two countries are targeting a combined 3 million reciprocal visits this year, officials said at a meeting in Chiayi County last month.
Taiwan hosted the 37th annual Taiwan-Korea Tourism Exchange Conference at the Chiayi Evergreen Palace Hotel in Taibao City on April 25, and announced that 113,192 South Koreans had visited the nation in January.
That was 91 percent of the number recorded over the same period in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, Taiwan Visitors Association (TVA) chairwoman Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭) said.
Photo: Tsai Tsung-hsun, Taipei Times
More of Taiwan’s tourists came from South Korea than any other country in January, while 92,806 Taiwanese traveled to South Korea that month, so the tourism industry is heating up in both countries, said Yeh, a former minister of transportation and communications.
Last year, 1.7 million Taiwanese and South Koreans traveled to each other’s countries, about 70 percent of the number recorded before the pandemic, Yeh said.
The conference was organized by the TVA and Korea Association of Travel Agents (KATA) to coordinate on tourism issues, promote cooperation within the industry and set up a communication platform, as well as to discuss new sales and marketing trends, transportation upgrades, and how to grow tourist numbers in both countries, officials said.
South Korea had 79 delegates at this year’s conference, including KATA chairman Henry Oh, Korean Mission in Taipei Deputy Director Choi Bong-gyu, South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism officer Kim Sung-mi.
Taiwan has 134 participants, including Yeh, Tourism Administration Director-General Chou Yung-hui (周永暉) and Chiayi County Deputy Commissioner Liu Pei-tung (劉培東).
In her address, Yeh thanked the visiting delegation for attending after the massive earthquake on April 3, which measured 7.2 on the Richter scale.
“We are grateful to South Koreans for supporting Taiwan by coming here to discuss and exchange ideas on tourism issues and new policies,” she said. “We can see that Taiwan and South Korea have a similar society... that both countries are facing a low-birthrate situation, and becoming super-aged societies. Therefore we are holding in-depth discussions on these issues.”
“Both sides are sharing their experiences when visiting each other’s countries, making adjustments to tourism programs,” she added.
The UN Tourism organization has released a forecast for this year’s global tourism trends, saying that people still prefer to travel regionally, and with flights between Taiwan and South Korea taking less than three hours, both sides are expected to see growth, Yeh said.
Oh said the conference, which was launched in 1979, has been an important engine driving the tourism and hospitality sectors in Taiwan and South Korea.
KATA and TVA have forged a close relationship, much like brothers, he added.
“South Koreans have a good impression of Taiwanese as being kind and friendly... It has been enjoyable for our delegation to come to Chiayi County and have productive talks at this conference,” Oh said.
“We also look forward to reaching the combined 3 million reciprocal visits for both sides — the target that we set in 2019,” Oh said.
‘OBNOXIOUS MAN’: The KMT’s Chen Ching-hui moved into Chung Chia-pin’s path atop the podium and reached for him before he grabbed at her legs with both hands Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) yesterday said he slipped and lost his balance, and did not know who was around him, after jumping onto the speaker’s podium at the legislature in Taipei. He apologized after a collision with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Ching-hui (陳菁徽), who moved to intercept him as he mounted the podium. There was pushing and shoving when the session started in the morning as KMT lawmakers attempted to block access to the podium to shield Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) so he could preside over the session. Video footage showed Chung step on a chair and
Hungarian Member of Parliament Tompos Marton said he considers Taiwan to be a better alternative to China as a strategic partner. Marton, who is the vice president of the opposition Momentum Party, made the remarks in an interview with the Central News Agency on Sunday. He draped a Republic of China flag across his shoulders to protest Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) visit to the capital city, Budapest, on Thursday last week, and openly voiced support for Taiwan on social media. He said in the interview that he wanted to remind the world that there were alternatives to China, and that “Taiwan has
A female physician at New Taipei City’s Shuang Ho Hospital was bullied and made to work for 32 consecutive hours by a senior colleague while pregnant before later having a miscarriage, an internal investigation found, the hospital said on Monday. The perpetrator has been removed from his post, the hospital said. The attending physician in the hospital’s Medical Imaging Department, identified by the pseudonym Y, earlier on Monday told reporters that she had been bullied by a male senior colleague who arranged shifts in her department. In January, shortly after she became pregnant, Y asked the department director if she could avoid overnight
Television presenter Mickey Huang (黃子佼) yesterday was indicted for allegedly possessing sexually explicit videos involving minors. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Huang after the High Prosecutors’ Office found deficiencies in its initial probe and on April 19 returned the case for further investigation. Earlier last month, Huang had been given two years of deferred prosecution. Prosecutors said that they found in their latest investigation that Huang had been a member of the online forum “Chuangyi Sifang” (創意私房) since Feb. 12, 2014. He purchased sexually explicit videos involving minors, and had downloaded images and videos that featured the breasts and sexual organs of young