The Tourism Administration on Tuesday opened its first service center in Europe, at the Avenue des Champs-Elysees in Paris, to provide tourism and travel information on Taiwan.
The Taiwan Tourism Information Center was inaugurated to increase the number of travelers visiting Taiwan from Europe, the agency said.
After the plaque unveiling ceremony for the new service center, the agency showed a presentation on travel to Taiwan, which was attended by more than 60 French travel agencies, to explore business and cooperative opportunities in tourism.
Photo: CNA
In addition to services provided by the center, Taiwan’s tourism resources were introduced in more detail during the briefing.
At the event, Explorator senior executive Nathalie Evrard said that her travel agency organized its first tour group to Taiwan shortly after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake on the Richter scale struck Hualien County on April 3.
The group had just returned to France, she added.
The group traveled across the nation from Kenting National Park in the south to Yehliu Geopark and Yangmingshan National Park in the north through Tainan and Nantou County, said Evrard, who was also on the tour.
Members of the tour group were mesmerized by the Fo Guang Shan Monastery in Kaohsiung and Taoist temples around Taiwan, she said, adding that these temple cultures do not exist in France.
Evrard also said fine food is Taiwan’s strength.
In terms of nature, she recommended the Alishan National Scenic Area.
“Taiwan is truly a land blessed by the gods. I think everyone should go to Alishan. It’s so beautiful there. I wanted to stay,” Evrard said.
Another French travel agency, Les Maisons du Voyage, also began offering Taiwan travel tours several years ago.
Customers are fascinated by Taiwan’s culture, nature, metropolitan areas and rich history, said Marie Fejoz, Les Maisons du Voyage’s tour package organizer.
Since COVID-19 restrictions in Taiwan were lifted in October 2022, the number of inquiries about Taiwan travel has increased, especially for customized itineraries, Fejoz said.
However, it is difficult to find tour guides with French language skills and a cultural and historical background in Taiwan, Fejoz said, adding that this is an area where improvements need to be made.
Pascale Ouellette, a travel specialist who has lived in Taiwan for three years, said she usually tells customers that Taiwan is one of the most beautiful countries among the 80 she has visited
It is an absolutely must-visit destination, Ouellette added.
Passengers aboard Korean Airlines Flight KE189 arrived in Taichung safely yesterday after a scare the previous day encountering uncontrolled decompression, which injured 13 passengers. Flight KE189 departed from Incheon at 4:45pm on Saturday bound for Taichung with 125 passengers on board. The flight was above Jeju Island when a fault in the pressurization system occurred 50 minutes after takeoff. Online flight tracker Flightradar24’s data show that the plane dropped more than 8,000 meters within 15 minutes, before it returned and landed back at Incheon Airport at 19:38pm. Thirteen passengers on board had a headache or earache due to the incident and were hospitalized. A different
China might seek to isolate Taiwan and weaken its economy through a “quarantine,” which would make it difficult for the US to respond and force Taipei to negotiate on unification, CNN reported on Saturday. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) “increasingly bellicose actions” toward Taiwan have heightened concerns that Beijing would use its military against Taiwan, it said, citing a report by think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). However, China might choose to initiate a quarantine, rather than a military invasion of Taiwan, to avoid US involvement, it said. “A quarantine [is] a law enforcement-led operation to control
President William Lai (賴清德) should backpedal from his new “two-state theory” and return to the “one China” principle in line with the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution, to foster and rebuild mutual trust across the Taiwan Strait, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday. Hsiao made the remark after the Chinese government on Friday revealed guidelines saying that its courts, prosecutors, and public and state security bodies should “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession crimes by the law, and resolutely defend national sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity.” The Democratic Progressive Party’s “kneejerk” reaction every
URBAN HEAT: The average temperature in Wanhua District tends to be higher because it is a low-lying area, while Xinyi District is hotter because of overdevelopment, experts say Heat in the nation’s metropolitan areas is becoming increasingly difficult to dissipate due to climate change and increases in areas experiencing urban heat effects, a study conducted by National Cheng Kung University’s Building and Climate Lab (BCLab) showed. The lab used weather data collected on Saturday last week and created a temperature map, which showed high-temperature areas in Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan have expanded and could soon be connected to each other. The phenomenon is similar to a 60km-long corridor near Tokyo experiencing urban heat effects, the study showed. The lab’s temperature map showed that Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), which