Now, the business aliance conference (or something like that) is taking place in Taipei. I have been yesterday at the forum for tourism and recreation - maybe my most wasted time the last 6 month.
They have inivited a CEO from China who is operating some 6 star hotels in China, Bangkok and elsewhere but not in Taiwan. The next speaker was a German guy from Singapore who has managed some BOT projects in Singapore. The best was a CEO from Japan. Taking part in a Taiwanese international conference - which languages will you expect? English and maybe Chinese but not Japanese. It was a really interesting half an hour. Other speakers made some advertisment for BOT, PPP-projects. everything was only a hugh, boring advertisment for foreign investment. Nothing have had a real relation to the normal tourism business.
Who the hell wants to come from europe to stay in an international 6 star hotel? They really mean that they can compete with Thailand or Hongkong as a shopping paradies?
Todays, they are organizing a socalled fact finding tour to a fantasy world in Taizhong - a believe that will become a main attraction for American and Europe tourist. Flying 12 hours for a adventure park?
I have met the last week three representatives from different german government agencies who want to attract Taiwanese investment in Germany, Taiwan wants German investment in Taiwan. It seems as our big governments have found a new solution for the financial crisis - attracting foreign investment. That so new, i can only believe they got this high valued suggestions from the nice guys from the international agencies as McKinsey and so on.