Hope some of your soon visiting us in Taiwan get some extra benefits from your friends in Taiwan
3 Likes
I think the only people coming using tour groups are either Mainlanders or rich folks from third world countries that don’t have backpacking cultures.
Not sure this a winning move from Taiwan.
3 Likes
$165 USD to come, how much will they pay me to leave?
16 Likes
i love the pitifully small amounts of money the Taiwanese government keeps offering as “incentives”.
USD$165. I can spend two nights in a not bad hotel or two weeks on a crappy hostel. Food, transportation, tickets to anything?? Not to mention the flight over is close to or possibly over US$1000. And then you still need to get home.
It’s like how the government is apparently offering “mortgage assistance”. NT$30,000/household. US$1,000 when nothing livable in the north costs less than US$300,000 sure does make a dent! Thanks for all your help, TW government!
7 Likes
Yup the government is be coming pretty pathetic. I don’t think I’ll vote next time, I might see what independent candidates are available.
1 Like
- NT$5000 Ă— 500,000 (individual tourists) + NT$20,000 Ă— 90,000 (tour groups) = NT$4.3 billion
- NT$6000 (tax rebate amount) × 777,000 (number of foreign residents in December 2022, not including APRC holders, but including those married to Taiwanese because I don’t have stats for that to remove them) = NT$4.66 billion
Those two numbers are eerily similar. It wouldn’t surprise me if the government logic was along the lines of “what’s the point in giving money to foreigners who already live here, when we could pay some other foreigners to come here, spend additional money, and then bugger off?”
Kind of joking – the obvious flaw with this is that the Taiwanese government would have needed to entertain the idea of including foreign residents in the tax rebate money in the first place, when they of course didn’t.
The money obviously ends up back in the hands of Taiwanese businesses anyway, albeit with foreign tourists getting a modest benefit in terms of a slightly cheaper holiday (it’s surprising enough that the government is willing to tolerate this – that must grate). I suppose the gamble is that it attracts additional tourists who would otherwise have gone elsewhere and ultimately brings in more money than it costs.
4 Likes
Sometimes gotta recognise a cry for help for what it is…
1 Like
Taiwan is just not geared up in any way for western tourists, so much needs to be done like smartening it up a bit, pull down all the corrugated iron extensions,build some sidewalks, tourist particular busses out of Taipei.
I cycle some absolutely beautiful areas in Taipei 20 mins by bus out of Center.
Promote the souths beaches and surfing culture, light railway from Kaohsiung to Kenting.
Loads of stuff needs to be done.
8 Likes
After the Chinese left they haven’t done much, but to be honest it’s better without the hordes anyway.
Wpuld love of they cleaned up more areas loke ypu said.
I habe been here long enough to the see the north coast massively improve on what is was. Time was you could drive around the north coast and barely see the beaches and sea it was closed off or blocked by those walls or dilapidated building. I know this is 20 years ago, still more work to do.
2 Likes
Probably all that swaths of properties taken down in Xinjhuan is a part of the plan.
Sometimes I wonder if the government is any good, with the recurring egg shortage that has absolutely NO reason to happen (it seems the media reported that there are more egg laying hens in Taiwan than people).
Anytime you hear about tourism in the news in Taiwan just see it as propaganda. They really don’t give a flying fuck about tourism in Taiwan. It’s a lot of double think and double speak.
2 Likes
Because its low effort anyway, the holidays here will always be busy and booked out at high prices.
Why care about tourism when TSMC makes more than the GDP of Thailand?
3 Likes
Tourism is important for some areas but its mostly domestic tourists, like 95% even in some of the famous spots that I visit, except for when the Chinese were coming here. Taiwan gets lots of short break tourists from HK/SEA but they tend to stay close to the cities for a brief trip.
Lol this is so stupid.
I bought my house for $200000 US.
It’s actually quite easy to find quite liveable homes for less than $300000 US.
1 Like
I mean that’s not true at all.
There are plenty of Korean and Japanese your groups
Why does it have to be Western tourists? It’s pointless to target westerners
Taiwan has a strong inbound tourism from HK, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea and Japan. Inbound tourism from SEA is also growing
Might as well target the needs of those markets, especially Japanese
6 Likes
I think this policy is fine tbh, as long as they give vouchers and not cash. It’s fine for a government to give cash to stimulate domestic consumption and they will also sway some people to come here who wouldn’t normally
Domestic tourism has been strong through Covid but hasn’t completely made up the shortfall for losing foreign tourists. It also took a huge hit with the lack of Chinese tourists, so guess it’s a political move to placate those in tourism
At the end of the day, it’s fine if the money is going bank into the economy
Vouchers not bound to a certain kind of business.
1 Like
I didn’t say have to be, I say it isn’t.
Keep Asian tourists only, fine no effort by government tourist board needed.
Why would Taiwan want US dollars?
Worthless yen a better option?