Absolutely. A few pages back from this one there’s a useful list of some of the advantages and disadvantages of various countries. But under disadvantages of Thailand was “Are there any?” Well, for starters there are many of one’s fellow tourists, such as the sizable percentage of backpackers who evidently had not bathed since they began their trek somewhere to the west of India. Then there are the Winston Wus of the world, etc. If they all choose to stay away from Taiwan, fine by me.
Regarding attracting tourists, though, a lot of people seem to think that for potential visitors this is simply a matter of rational choices. But as much as Taiwan could benefit from, say, better mid-range hotels, standardized romanization, and clear English, consider how many people go to places simply because they are famous or vaguely associated with something famous, not because they’re inherently interesting. (“Look! It’s a statue of a little boy pissing!” “Look! It’s a kitschy concrete pagoda, which replaced a very different one destroyed in the Cultural Revolution, which replaced the very different one destroyed in the Chinese Civil War, which replaced the very different one destroyed by the Japanese, which replaced…”) Although we tend to associate this with Asians, Westerners are certainly not immune to the lure of the undeservingly famous.
So the authorities just need to make Taiwan famous – not necessarily for the right things, just the things that will capture the imagination.
I still like my idea of setting up a sort of petting zoo in the Legislative Yuan, in which tourists could buy lunchboxes and other interesting objects of projectile size for the legislators and watch the fun safely from behind Plexiglas screens.
Very true CL, there is nothing outstandingly famous here that foreigners can boast about seeing. The 101 is medium famous and it’s a rite of passage for tourists to go up it when they come here. The most exciting thing about that is the elevator and the damper, not the view!
If I was the Taiwanese government I would build ‘The Colossus of Tamshui’ or ‘The Colossus of Keelung’ over the entrance to the Tamshui/Keelung river and bill it as the 8th wonder of the world! The media would go crazy about it… Mark my words the Arabs will do something like that eventually although they have got more money to burn of course. Abu Dhabi just got a Ferrari themepark with a rollercoaster that travels along the ground at the speed of an F1 car, I have absolutely no interest in Abu Dhabi but I’d like to try that!
People from the Middle East often have surplus money to spend since very few know of the concept of “savings”. However attracting them to visit Taiwan as tourists wouldn’t be ideal AT ALL. Can you imagine the pandemonium that would ensue after a fully covered woman wearing a “burka” walked into a bank or anywhere in Taiwan as a matter of fact? Arabs travel to Malaysia because they can get their halal meat and are relatively more comfortable due to it being classified as a ‘muslim’ nation.
Respectfully disagree, because of cost. Backpackers normally like cheap places. Taiwan is significantly more expensive than SE Asia and most parts of Mainland China. As has already been stated by others, the Taiwan tourist market is suited for Locals, Mainlanders, Overseas Chinese, and Japanese due to cultural/language/historical ties. And thats about it.[/quote]
Yes I agree that few will come, but there are backpackers that visit Japan and Korea and Taiwan has a bit more of that weird, wacky ‘industrial hellhole vs. subtropical paradise’ thing going for it than either, while being cheaper. Of course the big numbers will come from Asia, probably that segment which already speaks Chinese or at least reads Hanzi, since everyone knows how useless a tool English is here for getting around and the tickets are cheap enough to take a gamble on it not sucking (too bad). Question is, will they spend enough money to replace the income from the Japanese who will undoubtedly stop coming.
Of course not many industrialized Asian countries bother trying to appeal to backpackers, since the per-head income is low and the problems many. Taiwan will likely continue to ignore the backpacker and try to attract big-spending tourists from anywhere outside the Chinese-speaking world, and continue to fail in that endeavor. Western travelers and tourists will continue to politely ignore Taiwan, as they always have done.
Don’t agree. They are not ignoring the Western backpacker. They’re trying all kinds of incentives to get 'em over here. Is it working? I don’t know, but the stats say its moving forward, albeit very slowly. Too much ma-fan, too much outlay, for not enough return. And I disagree, too, that they’re trying to attract big-spending tourists from outside the Chinese-speaking world. They’re not. They’re doing the sensible thing and following the money. Which is China. That simple. They want the Chinese. In large numbers. In groups. That can be herded around without fear of acrimony. And they are getting it. In spades. From where I’m standing, it seems like they are doing an absolutely stellar job of promoting tourism in Taiwan. Take what you have, and market it at the people most likely to open their wallets.
Just because they don’t give a flying fuck about Europe and America, other than lip-service in the form of a few high-profile ads on Times Square and a brief flurry of ads on London Hackney cabs, doesn’t mean they’re not achieving their goals.
You can’t be so completely dense as to think they somehow CAN’T attract Euros and Yanks, can you? Jeez, man! Wake up! They’re not in the slightest bit interested in having a “cool” country by Western standards. FUCK THAT! Can you even begin to imagine how difficult it would be to market Taiwan that way?
Get REAL!
When there’s like a billion people only too happy to be shuttled around on coaches from airport to hotel to “must-see” to hotel, to the next “must-see” etc.
If I was in the tourism business here, that’s what I’d be doing too. And making a frigging KILLING from it, too.
Face it, they’re a HELL of a lot smarter than you, bubba.
Taiwan is getting a lot of short-trippers from HK, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea etc. It’s not doing too badly with marketing to those areas. And as Sandman said, they are flying with the Chinese tourist business. The newest thing will be individual Chinese tourists…hoping to make more money from them.
It must be remembered that Chinese tourists may soon be the dominant force in tourism…worldwide! It makes perfect sense for Taiwan to focus on them first, money wise. But like everything there is a peak and balance…so that’s something they need to be mindful of.
That is a really scary scenario. A group of Chinese tourists can ruin any destination like sudden bad weather, a cholera epidemic and a military coup all rolled into one.
I guess Taiwan doesn’t have much choice except to whore itself out to the Chinese. Visitor arrivals from Japan has for years been way down from historical highs and no one other market seems to be stepping in to fill that void.
Others need to be more careful. A resort can go too far to cater to a group of visitors that do drive the others away, and it’s not smart to put all your eggs into one basket. For example, many resorts in Europe were a bit too keen to get the nouveau riche Russians in and paid for it with the loss of visitors from other countries. If you think it’s a difficult marketing task to get a visitor to come to country or resort he hasn’t been to before, think about how hard it is get a visitor to give a second chance to one he has visited and didn’t enjoy…
So to answer the subject line of this topic, “the reality of tourism in Taiwan” seems to be that it is and will remain a niche market catered to locals and visitors from a select group of Asian countries (Mainland China becoming the largest source in the next few years). And western tourists (backpackers or those with more money to spend) will not come to Taiwan in large numbers for the foreseeable if not indefinite future. What more needs to be said here?
That is a really scary scenario. A group of Chinese tourists can ruin any destination like sudden bad weather, a cholera epidemic and a military coup all rolled into one.[/quote]
You’re not kidding. Vanessa won’t even consider a tropical beach vacation in Asia anymore unless the location is remote enough that the China tour groups haven’t discovered it yet. Boracay is already over for this very reason. That isn’t to say you can’t have a nice time in Boracay - you can, but you have to plan your trip very carefully, choose a good, small-ish resort and stayaway when it’s holiday season in China. :no-no:
Nope. Ethnic Chinese already in your home countries have all of those opportunities staked out. :no-no:[/quote]
Well I don’t think so…it will be very helpful to advance people’s careers faster than others. A manager who can speak the majority of his guests language is very useful. As for Boracay I found it to be full of Koreans, HKers and Taiwanese when I was there, depends on the season and new flight routes I guess.
I can tell you that there are already a large number of Chinese students / economic migrants / spouses working these kind of hospitality positions in European airports, hotels and resorts who speak three or four language and are willing to work for low pay. You are going to need some serious skills and experience in hospitality management to trump that, and even then you will be competing with them on price. I can tell you from experience that the Chinese tourists do not want a westerner who can speak Chinese to deal with, they want someone who they expect to understand them on a cultural level and will choose an Asian face to talk to over yours every single time.
[quote=“redwagon”][quote=“headhonchoII”]
Well I don’t think so…it will be very helpful to advance people’s careers faster than others. A manager who can speak the majority of his guests language is very useful.
[/quote]
I can tell you that there are already a large number of Chinese students / economic migrants / spouses working these kind of hospitality positions in European airports, hotels and resorts who speak three or four language and are willing to work for low pay. You are going to need some serious skills and experience in hospitality management to trump that, and even then you will be competing with them on price. I can tell you from experience that the Chinese tourists do not want a westerner who can speak Chinese to deal with, they want someone who they expect to understand them on a cultural level and will choose an Asian face to talk to over yours every single time.[/quote]
I don’t really get that. I think you are being very negative. If you were in middle management and could talk to some of your guests when having issues I think it would be a great help, from both sides and also help your CV immensely. MAJOR face in front of the top management. You compete on your core skills…but having the ability to communicate with a key group of customers is certainly very beneficial. The reason why I was hired in my current position, apart from my core skills and experience? I can speak Chinese and resolve many issues among our customers/agents/suppliers very quickly. With the Chinese market becoming more important it’s certainly a useful skill. I have a key customer in China who only wants to deal with me because I speak Chinese…he has told me many times. He thinks the other people he deals with don’t really ‘get’ his problems.
Now imagine you had the situation with a big tour group/agent with ropey English skills…harrassed and under pressure. He/she will certainly appreciate that they can switch to Chinese in a hurry and that you promote a Chinese speaking service in your hotel etc. Not only that, many investors in the hospitality business will be Chinese too.
[quote=“headhonchoII”]
I don’t really get that. I think you are being very negative. If you were in middle management…[/quote]
Sorry, I read your first post on this subject as if you were suggesting a person with just Chinese language skills and no background in hospitality could walk into a job just on their Mandarin. Of course any extra language skill is going to help you if you’re already in the hospitality industry, it just won’t open the door for you if you aren’t.
Spent a couple rainy days in Kenting this past week and decided to take in a few of the tourist sites. Couldn’t believe the buses loaded with mainlanders…They are definitely the target for a big section of the tourism industry down there now.
Which is good as it will hopefully finally get the business community off their asses to upgrade the area. Chinese who have been to Hainan and then Kenting are goign to find the latter pretty lacking, at least in infrastructure, town planning, ect. Scenery wise it is better though the beaches in Hainan are better (though the water murkier so I guess it’s a draw )
I disagree with those who think the Chinese are going to have a lowering effect on the industry here. Even mid-level provincial sights in China often have far superior infrastructure, facilities, etc, than some of the best places in Taiwan. The push in China these days is to make every destination a “luxury” destination, and many are succeeding, at least in appearance. Service is still appalling and of course you can’t do anything about people blowing their nose on the sidewalk but the look of these places is quite nice.
So what does everyone think about an increasing number of Taiwanese becoming dependent on tourism jobs, where their job moved to China and the tourists are from China. How is that going to play out?
We’ve already seen the Chinese attach political goals to tourism with Kaohsiung being blacklisted for Chinese tour groups for screening Rebiya Kadeer’s film. Are we going to see locations becoming dependent on Chinese tourism to the point they will willingly support Beijing’s efforts toward controlling dissent here and pressure the central government to capitulate out of fear of their tourist quota being taken away?
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