No need for vouchers, they should be able to claim it back when exiting after showing receipts (like for tax).
That makes no sense at all.
Itâs pointless to spend money to meet the needs of people unlikely to come. Taiwan is much more attractive to Japanese and Japanese have decent sized tourist spends.
Americans donât even travel that much, especially to Asia. Most South East Asia countries target Europeans and neighboring countries
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Taiwanese food and night markets are a huge attraction for neighboring countries
As @Gain often mentions
Luckily Iâm off of this attraction.
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A man of your knowledge astounds me.
I feel humbled.
Quite a number of young middle class visitors from Thailand as well, they tend to look like Koreans which is funny to me.
Unfortunately some of the night markets arenât what they were and probably Taiwan should switch things up a bit in the tourism stakes. Night markets need a major rethink (or maybe notâŠwho am I to say).
Hiking , trail running, biking, surfing and aboriginal cultural, tea and coffee stuffâŠhuge potential, but I donât really want it to get too popular and well known outside Taiwan. Thereâs a balance there.
I think I could do a great 5 day trip across the spine of Taiwan. So much to see and do and incredible scenery that many foreign visitors in Taiwan even have not really experienced. You start off in Jiufen or Taipingshan, onto to Lalashan, up the lanyang valley into the central mountains, hitting some of the farms , few hikes, visit tea farms, aboriginal villages, qingjing nongchang, head across to Taroko or continue down to Yushan and the South. One of the challenges in accommodation in these places as they book out solid in the farmsteads at certain times of year. During my guided trip you will see flying squirrels , deer and macaques , Taiwan blue magpies and eagles and potentially other animals such as pangolins and rare rescued Taiwan black bears, fog bound tea farms, alpine views and sheep farms, ancient forests with 5000 year old redwoods, waterfalls, unique pacific aboriginal tribes. You will hike and experience the mountain railways and see the marble gorges and soak in the outdoor hotsprings. You will see it all and you will never forget your experiences but you need to pay for it you tight ass tourists. 5,000 NTD may get you a day at most.
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They have been heavily promoting the outdoor and biking tourism.
Last year was the year of the bike abc before that the year of the mountain. Unfortunately Covid fucked things up.
Yeah I donât care about night markets. For me they seem to be less impressive than before, but who knows
In Kaohsiung they are suffering compared to before, they really miss the Chinese tourists. I think Keelung market is still doing well and of course really crazy and unique in my opinion, maybe Fengjia is doing better but also Fengjia isnât what it was. Peoples habits are changing.
Probably they need some better festivals in Taiwan.
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haha, yes night markets are going away. Many are traps to rip off visitors, at least what I saw in the news in Taipei charging double prices. In Kaohsiung a lot more food trucks or weekend markets like in London. And no need for night market when you go to nice coffee shop, tea cafe or modern pub/bar that is clean and has Air Con for the summer. Hope visitors can see some small cafes.
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But the thing about cafes is they are nice but boring and not a reason to visit for most of us. The night markets are the big draw but they are losing their vitality. I think weekend markets, outdoor markets in parks could be better and yes as I said some kind of festivals that foreigners can also enjoy such as music or street performance. Matsu is great and all that but you canât promote it to foreigners really :).
More festivals and non Asian big name music acts.
Why do the western big name bands avoid Taiwan? Must be a good reason? Taiwanese people donât want them? I donât feel is the case, though Iâm sure I will be corrected on this.
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Because its expensive to get them to come, usually for one date. Usually promoters will be able to plan 5-6 dates in Japan or China(including HK) and there is a big audience there. Usually if Taiwan festivals get bigger acts, its because they are already in Asia for a Japanese or other Asian festival. The economics dont make sense otherwise
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For Singaporeans, Hongkies and Malaysian Chinese they can get around anyway, as can speak Chinese. Taiwan is huge for Singaporean and HK backpackers and one of the most popular locations.
I have no idea what Japanese like. There are quite a few Japanese surfers in Waiao so maybe can promote more of this kind of more subculture tourism in Japan.
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Visa runners are gonna casssssshhhhhh out
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Yes Taiwan is on the map for Singapore and HK but only one of many destinations they visit. I wouldnât over egg it. Iâm around Taiwan a lot and there numbers arenât that big at all.
I donât know, now that I think about it I donât want more foreign tourists. Go away! 
The data is here, if interested. Pre-Covid 2019, Hong Kong inbound tourists were 3rd behind Japanese and Mainland Chinese.
1.76 million HK visits in 2019. (up 6.31% from 2018)
2.17 million Japanese (up 10.10 % from 2018)
1.24 million South Koreans (up 21.89% from 2018)
So inbound Asia tourism was doing pretty well before COVID
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My first visit to Taiwan was as a tourist. Reason was though my visa for China had expired 
I thought umm island Chinese Iâll go their see what itâs like, I had planned on visiting Hainan.
First impression, people more polite than Chinese, more English spoken and 7/11âs every 400 metres.
I mostly liked the way it was a small country and could go north - south easily within a day, public transport was cheap and the women attractive.
As for attractive women was I met one and returned.
I have to say if it wasnât for that reason I wouldnât have recommended it as a holiday destination.
I have given my reasons why and things havenât changed for the better in 6 years.
They donât want to upset their Chinese income.
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The nightmarket I visit in Singapore quite often has a food area where you sit down and then the vendors walk around with their menus taking orders and payment. Food is delivered to tables including beer. Love it, sit down, order a beer and keep snacking all evening without having to get up for anything else than the bathroom.
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âCash rewards will also be given to tour groups to encourage them to visit the island.â
Oh god no.
I DETEST tour groups. A mob of 30 or so bored looking people shuffling around and getting in the way while a fat guy holding a stuffed toy on a stick barks at them for taking too long taking photos because he needs to drag them to his cousinâs friendâs store selling crappy, soggy dumplings because he gets a 10 percent commission. I donât know why people go on them, even if it may be a bit cheaperâsurely itâs worth paying a bit extra to go on your own and do things you like at your own leisure, without your trip being cut short in order to be dragged to the âchocolate factoryâ to buy overpriced chocolate for an hour, or having to wait for an hour for the slow family to arriveâand thereâs always an obnoxious slow family who delay everythhing.
Plus, for me personally, they make getting around a drag when theyâre cluttering up the place.
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