Just to get a family member from back home to come visit me is a nightmare. First, an invitation letter must be send to said family member without which the Taiwan office won’t issue a visa. Second, said letter must be submitted with proof that said family member has a certain amount of money in his/her bank account back home.
And they want to encourage tourism? 
Too much trouble, therefore I meet said family member in Thailand where we don’t need a visa or proof of income. 
The problem is that this slogan and campaign was probably dreamed up by office drones at the Free China centre in London (or whatever its called). They have absolutely NO idea about marketing. They have absolutely NO idea about British tourists. They have absolutely NO idea about travel in Taiwan.
As far as they’re concerned, they take what the government tells them. They take the govenrment’s money. They skim off as much of it as they can for their own bank accounts and use the rest for their “marketing campaign.”
Far as they’re concerned, Taiwan is a six-day, five-night tour on a bus. They simply have no concept that people actually might want a different kind of vacation experience and get exactly that – in a whole multitude of exotic places – for a tenth of the cost.
Arseholes. Dumb, blind, unrelentingly pig-ignorant and utterly venal. If they HAD used the money allocated to them instead of “diverting” it. If they HAD hired a Brit marketing company to do the job and target the correct demographic with interesting information. Then they might have had a campaign. As it is, they have a silly joke for the next three months. Bunch of jokers.
Sorry, Taiwanluthiers, but its not negative. Its the damn warty truth.
Yeah, I agree with that. I’m kind of a hermit, and kind of slow to observe, but there are remarkable (in the good sense) things to see and experience here, sometimes inexplicably remarkable, and sometimes just by walking down the street.
Someone on this thread was talking about targets or demographics. That part might take some study and planning, but I believe there are people out there in the rest of the world who could have a rich experience here.
[quote=“Anubis”]Just to get a family member from back home to come visit me is a nightmare. First, an invitation letter must be send to said family member without which the Taiwan office won’t issue a visa. Second, said letter must be submitted with proof that said family member has a certain amount of money in his/her bank account back home.
And they want to encourage tourism?
Too much trouble, therefore I meet said family member in Thailand where we don’t need a visa or proof of income. [/quote]
To be fair though, odds are if you are from a country that has that many requirements for a tourist visa in Taiwan you would have similar difficulties visiting many nice places in NA and the EU.
djlowballer: Of course, but Taiwan is not even remotely in the league of Canada, USA, Britain, France, Germany, etc.