The Taipei International Travel Fair (ITF) opened at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center yesterday, featuring a record 1,500 booths for 111 destinations, the Tourism Administration said yesterday.
With Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, the Czech Republic, Thailand, Guam, Indonesia and 10 of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies among this year’s exhibitors, Tourism Administration Director-General Chou Yung-hui (周永暉) said he believed the 38th edition of the fair would elevate Taiwan’s exposure to international travelers.
With the ending of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Tourism Administration has been targeting sustainable development and digitization to promote Taiwan as a tourism destination, Chou added.
Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times
Taiwan Visitors Association chairwoman Chien Yu-yen (簡余晏) said that this year’s expo would also prove that the Taipei show is now on par with other international fairs, such as the world’s largest tourism trade show, the Internationale Tourismus-Borse Berlin.
Chien lauded Taiwan’s tourism achievements, such as being awarded the “Best LGBTQ Trend Destination” by the Spartacus International Gay Guide, and ranking third among non-Organization of Islamic Cooperation destinations in the Global Muslim Travel Index.
Addressing the fair’s opening ceremony, President William Lai (賴清德) shone a spotlight on the attendance of high-ranking tourism officials from visiting countries such as Paraguay, Guatemala and Japan.
The government hopes to further the progress of Taiwan through tourism, he said, calling on cities and counties to work with the central government to improve amenities for international and domestic travelers.
Just this week, the Tourism Administration launched the “Taiwan Tourism 100 Spotlights” initiative with the assistance of 22 municipalities to package Taiwan to international and domestic tourists, he said.
Its new slogan, “Taiwan — Waves of Wonder,” is being promoted across the globe, he added.
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
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