Just came across some numbers about Taiwan’s tourism competitiveness. Thought I share them with those of you who wonder about the state of tourism in Taiwan.
Source: Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2007 (issued by the World Economic Forum)
“Taiwan is ranked 30th, just ahead of Malaysia,
which is ranked 31st. Taiwan’s strengths lie in the quality
of its human resources (ranked 15th), good ground
transport and ICT infrastructure (both ranked 14th), a
policy environment that is conducive to developing the
sector (8th), and strong price competitiveness (ranked
15th), indicating that much of the underlying structure
and environment exists for developing the sector. But its
overall T&T competitiveness is held back by a relatively
underdeveloped tourism infrastructure (ranked a low
74th) and the lack of prioritization of the sector by the
government (ranked 78th).”
… underdeveloped tourism infrastructure, lack of prioritization of the sector by the government…
Makes one wonder where the goverment spend all the billions of dollars available to improve tourism.
The presence of major car rental companies and hotel rooms per capita are odd criteria for ranking tourism infrastructure. In any case, Taiwan now has rentals available at most HSR stations so it should rank much higher in the next survey.
Nothing surprising about ranking in the middle of the pack in terms of prioritization of the sector by government. It’s natural that countries with large diversified economies would rank lower than their smaller tourism-dependent counterparts.
Prioritization of the sector by government:
France 36th
Taiwan 74th
United States 84th
Korea 88th
Italy 92nd
Brazil 94th
Japan 98th
Germany 111th
[quote=“hannes”]
Makes one wonder where the goverment spend all the billions of dollars available to improve tourism. [/quote]
As a percentage of the total budget, Taiwan spent about the same as Mali marketing tourism. The absence of flashy television commercials every twenty minutes should have been your first clue that there aren’t billions of dollars available.
[quote=“hannes”]Taiwan’s strengths lie in the quality
of its human resources (ranked 15th), good ground
transport and ICT infrastructure (both ranked 14th), a
policy environment that is conducive to developing the
sector (8th), and strong price competitiveness (ranked
15th…[/quote]
Yes, Taiwan has a well-educated and hardworking population, but are the best people interested in the tourism industry? Probably not. Most of them are drawn to the tech sector etc.
Good transport, I agree. But more English-language information and English-speaking staff are needed. The HSR does well in both regards, I think.
Price competitiveness? Cheaper than Japan, certainly, but not cheap when compared to Thailand etc.
I expect international tourism to grow slowly but steadily.
[/quote]