I have Western colleagues from UK and Singapore who are interested in visiting Taiwan. I told them they could have a blast and Taiwan really is a visited and interesting place for a weeks visit but I still think it could be a little challenging without some Chinese.
Hiking is incredible here but they would need to go as part of organized tours in the central mountains. ThAt kind of tourism biz could be much bigger.
Diving is a thing but then again it’s more of a thing in SEA.
Probably Chinese cooking courses could also be big.
Hot springs are great too but again a little bit difficult without some Chinese and need to rent a car.
Now Taiwan isn’t any more difficult than Japan to get around and communicate, and Japan is absolutely heaving with western tourists as well as Asians so it could just be that Taiwan isn’t so famous …
Japan isn’t that friendly to foreigners either, recently I was refused service at two restaurants in a row in Tokyo just because I was a foreigner !
In Tokyo. Myself and my Caucasian colleague walked into two local joints one after the other. In both establishments the middle aged ladies who were serving the tables gave us the crossed arms ‘X’ sign . Since there was one table free in the first place and four free in the second place I can allow assume it was xenophobia / racism at work.
Neither of us spoke Japanese so we weren’t in a position to challenge it. We ended up finding a great place with friendly service …Third time lucky !
Now I have been to Japan dozens of times in Izakaya / Yakitori type places and never refused service when I accompanied my Japanese colleagues.
Never in my entire time in Taiwan have I been refused service because I am a foreigner.
Same here, no issues in Taiwan. I’ve heard that some Korean restaurants do that too but I guess I was lucky in that I didn’t run into that in Japan or Korea.
Those are fantastic. I agree. Stay at b&b or Airbnb, more open minded, genuinely interested in Taiwan. But the money, as per the news, is in masses. That is the one people want, they say. They never mentioned the independent travellers. So we have a local population that is despondent on any tourists that are not by the busload. Brain washing, indoctrination, political bias.
Taiwan could be a hybrid mix of japan and hawaii i think. Eco tourism we have it all. No skiing bur most everything else. Culture, temples lots of stuff. Problem is they fail at planning with aesthetics in mind. That million dollar view they will park a dumpster at or have a bunch of broken water pipes, electrical lines etc all through it.
If projects were maintained like those pretty mountain roads with detailed rock art it could be 5 star. But after they build it with some cool aborifianl stone art they drill water pipes onto it. Its a common trend all over. If they cleaned it up and maintained it the west would come. We would essentially be a tropical japan which would rake in tourists. All the mountains, the two tips and the east coast are still great for tourism. It would be wise to protect the east from turning into the west.
Taiwan has everything for tourists accept intetnational land crossings and the will to make it happen.
I know a few incredible sites in Taiwan that haven’t been turned into tourist traps, a little hard to hike into and therefore are preserved very well. I would hate to see them get overwhelmed like Alishan.
I totally agree. Luckily the weather and geography protect the mountains a lot cimpared to less extreme countries.
Im constantly having an inner battle with this type of thing. In the end the country wants money. So if we use that as the end game for nearly everything whats worse. Production (manifacturing, forestry, agriculture etc) or service industry (such as tourism in this case)?
I would LOVE to see hoards of land preserved until infinity but i dont see it. Heavy industry here has sbown its true colors, or shades as it is, pretty clear for everyone to see. And as much as i truly hate the crowds at alishan i feel somehow its a whole lot better than the betel nut farms all the way up to alishan.
No easy answer but i feel tourism lends its hand better to conservation than does other cash minded industries.
Akishan and Wuling and Taroko and other trite sites are overpacked because they bring money to a certain sector and mostly remain a monopoly - cough, Veterans Council, cough. As a monopoly, they are not that interested in investing, but rather just stuffing bills into their own pockets. So it is just easier to keep on doing the old thing at the lowest cost, do not innovate nor take risks, and heaven forbid opening up to new influences or a wider market. That may make profits slip away from only them and open benefits to others.
If you really want Halal there are many places that are known to Muslims but not to unbelievers. Although the restaurants welcome those of all the Abrahamic religions.
Seems halal is pretty easy here compared to most other non muslim/islam oriented countries. Though i noticed recent years certifying things halal has become a thing. Also noticed a lot of prayer rooms for muslim (and related?) Folks all over taiwan. At first i thought it may have been more for the indonesian work force…maybe its also tourism related?
I’ve always found it incredibly silly that “attracting foreign tourists”, regardless of nationality, has taken central stage in politics when it’s one of the least reliable sources of income.
People should really just get over it and realise that Taiwan will never be a popular vacation destination like Thailand. Thailand receives close to 40 million international tourists annually, and? Thailand’s economy is still smaller than Taiwan’s by quite a wide margin despite having a far larger population (close to 70 million), tens of thousands of Thai workers have to be exported to Taiwan doing shit jobs Taiwanese ppl wouldn’t do, and the country regressed to a military dictatorship years ago. But hey, I guess all that isn’t important since they’ve got more FOREIGNERS sunbathing on their beaches.
It’s also really silly to compare to Japan. Japan is a GREAT POWER and is one of the oldest civilisations in the region. Taiwan was a COLONY for the whole time. And a Japanese one on top of it (so naturally Westerners don’t know shit about it). What do people expect? Give me a break.
Do people even realise that Australia receives LESS international tourists than Taiwan does? I’m pretty sure that Aussies don’t gaf about that. Why? BECAUSE IT DOESN’T MATTER
