A couple of unconnected points, in no particular order:
The Palace Museum has been on Nat Geo lately. Maybe that will nudge the numbers up a little.
It’s normal that when only a few visitors go to a place they are more adventurous, that’s why they go to Taiwan, because it’s still an unusual place. Sure, the demographic that visits now is very heavily slanted to those with business here and/or other ties. They may also have some local support like their relatives or suppliers to get out to the interesting places without needed much help of the government infrastructure kind. If the numbers increase and ‘real’ tourists start showing up, they will start to follow the model in Thailand and only go to the obvious, easy places. The real tourist will only go to places in the brochures, where the signs are big and clear and the road is wide and well-travelled. That means they go to Alishan, SML, Kenting and so-on. The alternative is that other, now remote places are opened up and ‘developed’. I think we all know very well what that means, wall-to-wall concrete, KTV, food stands, 7-11s etc.
Another big turn-off is going to be the quality of the local tour operators who will of course jostle for a piece of any new increase in tourist arrivals. Some people may be amused by spending hours on a bus with KTV, or going to endless souvenir shops, or ‘scenic spots’ which consist of one object to have a photo taken in front of and not much else. Most people will not think it’s amusing at all. You can bet that the local operators will try to gain market share by the traditional route, the only one they know: Cut corners and cut costs.
A lot has been said about building a base on eco-tourism, but how are you going to undo the horror of seeing the west coast? Blindfold all visitors until they get into the mountains?
[quote=“redwagon”]
A lot has been said about building a base on eco-tourism, but how are you going to undo the horror of seeing the west coast? Blindfold all visitors until they get into the mountains? [/quote]
Though the west coast is pretty ugly (and I should know, I live in Changhua), there are quite a few big, important wetlands along the west coast that are very popular with birdwatching tourists. The problem is access - most of them are in locations not served by trains and public buses. You need either a tour group or your own transport to get to them, which is not good for a lot of tourists.
That said, I’ve met a few groups of tourists (often British for some reason) that have come all the way to Taiwan just to visit these wetlands.
Strangely, although there are 3 or 4 wetlands relatively close to me, none of my Taiwanese friends and colleagues know anything about them, or even where they are. And most of them (my TW friends, not the wetlands), have lived their whole lives in this area.
I presume the original article meant simply 700,000 American passport holders came to Taiwan and that there’s no racial profile on a US passport. Well whenever I queue in the Foreigners line at CKS there are oodles of American passport holding Taiwanese obviously returning to visit relatives. The military age blokes are the most fidgety fearing they’ll inadvertently hand over their Taiwan ID and be pulled out of the line and thrown into boot camp to serve their draft. From memory they have to leave and fly back in every three months if tthey live n Taiwan. That’s gotta articfically inflate those figures.
It never ceases to piss me off when one of the haiguan arseholes at CKS invites “Taiwanese” in the foreign line to join the considerably less crowded Taiwan immigration queue, since he dosen’t mean residents like you or me, but only green card carrying draft dodgers like ac_dropout.
I imagine that this is precisely why these areas are so unspoilt. Lack of easy access for Ah-Huang and his clan. The pristine Taiwan seems to begin about 50m from the nearest road. Most of 'em can’t toss their garbage any further than that, and they sure ain’t willing to walk that far.
I imagine that this is precisely why these areas are so unspoilt. Lack of easy access for Ah-Huang and his clan. The pristine Taiwan seems to begin about 50m from the nearest road. Most of 'em can’t toss their garbage any further than that, and they sure ain’t willing to walk that far.[/quote]
By “pleasure”, do you mean the unsolicited, soft knock on the hotel room door after 11 p.m.? Maybe it happens if you accidentally move the condom that comes as part of the room kit, some kind of RF tag hooked into the local taxi system.
When I stayed at Grany Hyatt Taipei a couple of years ago, the bellboy asked me if I needed
ANYTHING ELSE??? I was like… no… thanks… and gave him a NT$100 bill, figuring he was
expecting a tip for carrying my 4 heavy suitcases. (against my own personal policy of NEVER
tipping anybody in Taiwan)
Well, it turned out that he really menat “do you need company for night night?” (exact quote)
I either had jetlag(after a 14-hour flight) or I was simply too stupid at that moment…
My mind raced as I thought of a polite reply to tell him that I wasn’t GAY. Fortunately, he
started to tell me what kind of girls he could get for me and for how much… I told him I was
too tired, but maybe later… (the truth was that I couldn’t see why any girl would be worth
NT$10,000 per night)
[quote=“creamypanda”]When I stayed at Grany Hyatt Taipei a couple of years ago, the bellboy asked me if I needed
ANYTHING ELSE??? I was like… no… thanks… and gave him a NT$100 bill, figuring he was
expecting a tip for carrying my 4 heavy suitcases. (against my own personal policy of NEVER
tipping anybody in Taiwan)
Well, it turned out that he really menat “do you need company for night night?” (exact quote)
I either had jetlag(after a 14-hour flight) or I was simply too stupid at that moment…
My mind raced as I thought of a polite reply to tell him that I wasn’t GAY. Fortunately, he
started to tell me what kind of girls he could get for me and for how much… I told him I was
too tired, but maybe later… (the truth was that I couldn’t see why any girl would be worth
NT$10,000 per night)
Not something I would expect at the Grand Hyatt… [/quote]
How come I never got an offer such as this when I stayed at the Grand Hyatt for almost a week? The only offer I got was for a free tour of the 2000 art pieces in the hotel (which is very nice, btw).
[/quote]
