Why is it that Taiwan is not a popular destination for Australian and Indian? Set aside language
Anyone has good analysis?
Thanks
Aside from language, I think that other countries in the region are simply more attractive travel destinations than Taiwan for a number of different reasons. Given a choice, Taiwan loses out.
From what I have seen in the short time that I have been here, there are a lot of feminine looking, hand-bag carrying, boyish looking guys around these parts. Australians and Indians would probably scare the living day lights out of the females here. 
[quote=“han2012”]Why is it that Taiwan is not a popular destination for Australian and Indian? Set aside language
Anyone has good analysis?[/quote]
Is this homework you’ve been assigned?
[quote=“lostinasia”][quote=“han2012”]Why is it that Taiwan is not a popular destination for Australian and Indian? Set aside language
Anyone has good analysis?[/quote]
Is this homework you’ve been assigned?[/quote]
Hi there!
Yes, I am doing my post grad paper for my marketing module. Well Taiwan is one of the popular destination in Singapore/Malaysia hence I picked this topic.
Need to write a strategic proposal to score high marks 
so gathering thots on the problem, so I can solve it (hopefully)
The short answer is that Taiwan has very little tourist infrastructure for western tourists especially once you leave Taipei. About the only tourists that they seem to cater to are the mainlanders that throw money around unlike your budget conscious foreigners.
Hi Thanks!
maybe I should faster switch my topic for my paper 
tourist infrastructures? Or what appeals to Australians? Sun? Beach? Bar? cultural experience?
perhaps I should go into fundamental and extract what Taiwan has that might appeal to Australians and package it and market that way in my post-grad paper
From my personal opinions, Taiwan has no focus on how to market itself aside food. It is not known as a cultural place (thou it has lots), it is not knows for beach/sun (thou it has) aside mainlanders, most of visitors are other Chinese who got influenced by Taiwanese celebrity culture, and that is all.
Taiwan has all of the things that westerners would like. It’s that the businesses and gov’t pretty don’t care if westerners come here. Local Taiwanese and mainland Chinese tourists are much more profitable targets to focus your business on. The businesses are what I considered infrastructure. I also left out that there is very little effort to promote Taiwan to western tourists.
tbh I find the result nearly perfect once you learn to avoid the crappy tourist destinations that are popular with Taiwanese and Chinese. It’s kind of refreshing not to be living in the midst of a heavy traveled tourist circuit.
Hi Thanks!
maybe I should faster switch my topic for my paper tourist infrastructures? Or what appeals to Australians? Sun? Beach? Bar? cultural experience?
perhaps I should go into fundamental and extract what Taiwan has that might appeal to Australians and package it and market that way in my post-grad paper
From my personal opinions, Taiwan has no focus on how to market itself aside food. It is not known as a cultural place (thou it has lots), it is not knows for beach/sun (thou it has) aside mainlanders, most of visitors are other Chinese who got influenced by Taiwanese celebrity culture, and that is all.[/quote]
[color=#404080]HI Abacus,
Taiwan itself is a pretty small land in contrast with Australia, New Zealand, or Indonesia. Yes, part of your opinion is right about We Taiwanese like food. And yet food is just one topic that not belongs to Cultural section base on infostructure^^( haha). But have you seen the temple or the architectural building by some of the fore master? So I guess for an outsider will found north Taipei or KaoShiung central City is a city for consumption.
Every since I left home and visited USA or Rome in Italy, I’ve found that place was a field filled in their own white Culture, but some are mixed. If mentioning about food, it is also a main idea in Italian world. Aside from food, I guess our tourist center has not focused the small group of arts or aboriginal places origin. Maybe I guess these two articles are not a categories that outdoor persons are fascinated about:> At least, there’re some fine places are not on advertisement, which me myself has not yet explore. [/color]- :neutral: EnglishMeditation
This is the answer.
For many East Asia is a once (maybe twice or thrice) in a lifetime trip. So you compete against: Bali, Singapore, KL, Tioman, Langkawi, Melacca, Penang, Phuket, Phi Phi, Samui, Bangkok, Chiangmai, Pattaya, Angkor Wat, HCMC, Nha Trang, Hanoi, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Guilin, Xian, Seoul, Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Hokkaido, Manila, Borocay, Palawan, Cebu…etc…etc… and those are only the well traveled tourist destinations, there are tons of other better places beneath the surface.
Then there are the others who work in China from time to time (be it factory visits o meetings), the last thing they want to do is more of China on their free time and many equate Taiwan with China.
Taiwan should continue to focus on China and Japan for tourists, while continuing to woo more and more overseas Chinese in Singapore and Malaysia. That is the best way to build the tourist industry here.
I thought about this too and came up with the following:
Thailand, Philippines: better beaches, diving, and cheaper booze
Hong Kong: better city experience for most foreigners than Taipei (better shopping, better English)
China: more diverse and impressive natural beauty if your willing to travel enough. Taiwan’s mountains and east coast are quite nice, but doesn’t really compare to the best China’s geography has to offer
I’m sure there are many other examples, but the main problem is that Taiwan doesn’t have any particular niche that sets it apart from other more popular options.
[quote=“louisfriend”]I thought about this too and came up with the following:
Thailand, Philippines: better beaches, diving, and cheaper booze
Hong Kong: better city experience for most foreigners than Taipei (better shopping, better English)
China: more diverse and impressive natural beauty if your willing to travel enough. Taiwan’s mountains and east coast are quite nice, but doesn’t really compare to the best China’s geography has to offer
I’m sure there are many other examples, but the main problem is that Taiwan doesn’t have any particular niche that sets it apart from other more popular options.[/quote]
You’ve obviously never had bubble tea or beef noodle.
seriously though, I think Taiwan ha much more appeal to Asians, and that is where the focus should be (East Asians, that is).
Thanks all for these insightful information
A big favour from all of you
because my paper is set to target Australia audience and to attract them to Taiwan (for my marketing module) it is either I drop it and switch to other topic OR more challenge = work on creative way to maybe achieve shorter term boost to attract Australia with whatever exist in Taiwan now, and the politics/infrastructure issue are out of our control. Basic ideas are:-
- (short term) Focus on promoting Taiwan beach Kenting + coincide with the concert event in summer (while Australia is in winter in june/summer) bundle with Taiwan club scenes (since they are popular among Singapore/HK/Japan Visitors)
- (Mid Term) Focus on selling Taiwan existing culture such as temples bundle with old streets + architectural buildings to create a strong unique sense to attract western cultural lovers
any opinions? or ideas? hehe
Last
3. (long term) which is beyond control and that is infrastructure. e.g Singapore took 10 years to plan and build, and reach current image of premium + high end travel destination (F1+Casinos etc) hence this point would be more abstract to focus now.
[quote=“Deuce Dropper”][quote=“louisfriend”]I thought about this too and came up with the following:
Thailand, Philippines: better beaches, diving, and cheaper booze
Hong Kong: better city experience for most foreigners than Taipei (better shopping, better English)
China: more diverse and impressive natural beauty if your willing to travel enough. Taiwan’s mountains and east coast are quite nice, but doesn’t really compare to the best China’s geography has to offer
I’m sure there are many other examples, but the main problem is that Taiwan doesn’t have any particular niche that sets it apart from other more popular options.[/quote]
You’ve obviously never had bubble tea or beef noodle.
seriously though, I think Taiwan ha much more appeal to Asians, and that is where the focus should be (East Asians, that is).[/quote]
Yep! Taiwan has wide variety of best food and nicest people.
- But what is the main problem that Taiwan is not able to stand out in Australia (or India) as one of destination
- So what can be done? in short term/mid term to solve this problem and strategic proposal to boost inbound from Australia
*e.g. Korea has language problem but Korea bee doing good past 10 years to attack whole world by K-pop"
[quote=“Deuce Dropper”][quote=“louisfriend”]I thought about this too and came up with the following:
Thailand, Philippines: better beaches, diving, and cheaper booze
Hong Kong: better city experience for most foreigners than Taipei (better shopping, better English)
China: more diverse and impressive natural beauty if your willing to travel enough. Taiwan’s mountains and east coast are quite nice, but doesn’t really compare to the best China’s geography has to offer
I’m sure there are many other examples, but the main problem is that Taiwan doesn’t have any particular niche that sets it apart from other more popular options.[/quote]
You’ve obviously never had bubble tea or beef noodle.
seriously though, I think Taiwan ha much more appeal to Asians, and that is where the focus should be (East Asians, that is).[/quote]
Thanks Deuce Dropper!
The topic is a tough one, as if the focus is East Asia then it is very easy to promote. Hence the focus is nearest western culture (Australia) to test creativity and strategic planning in the my marketing module
Yeah it seems Taiwan will only be of interest to East Asians on the whole. The govt tourist dept has long ago given up on anyone else.
Every decent single surf break on the east coast has a concrete jetty obstructing it. Get rid of them.
Promote your surfing spots, allow easier access to beaches, lift the ban on surfing typhoon swells, protect coastal areas from over-development and greedy hotel-buildng criminals, clean up run off-water and treatment for raw sewage and become part of the multi-million dollar global surf industry. Or you can keep selling squid balls and Gao Liang Wine to the main landers.
And hire me-Bubba 2 Guns as the Minister of Surf and Water Recreation with my own personal squad of bikini clad local girls.
[quote=“Bubba 2 Guns”]Every decent single surf break on the east coast has a concrete jetty obstructing it. Get rid of them.
Promote your surfing spots, allow easier access to beaches, lift the ban on surfing typhoon swells, protect coastal areas from over-development and greedy hotel-buildng criminals, clean up run off-water and treatment for raw sewage and become part of the multi-million dollar global surf industry. Or you can keep selling squid balls and Gao Liang Wine to the main landers.
And hire me-Bubba 2 Guns as the Minister of Surf and Water Recreation with my own personal squad of bikini clad local girls.[/quote]
what’s worse is every decent single surf break in the northern half has legions of orange haired douchebags acting like they Bohdi in the TW version of Point Break.
Also, promoting Kending as the tip of the spear so to speak to TW tourism is a massive mistake, there are easily 100 better beaches in the region. Focus on the mountains, East Coast and Taipei day excursions.
the Taipei (city tour, 101, markets etc) -East Coast (Jiufen, Hualien) -Taroko 3 stop short visit is the way to best showcase TW.
Travel is not a zero sum game. The fact that there may be “better” whatever somewhere else is really of little importance. People want to travel to new places.
I’d say the biggest obstacle right now to Taiwan is the Ma Ying Jeou government. The most unique parts of Taiwan they want to minimize or at best explain as sub-sets of Chinese culture. Way to build excitement guys! They also continue to promote and build in fits and starts that get people excited but then they let the momentum fade away.
Cycling is a good example. There was a great buzz a couple years ago about Taiwan becoming a new world renowned cycling destination, especially the east coast. I talked with many foreign cyclists, writers and advocates about this and they were all truly amazed at Taiwan, and sincerely believed the east coast ranked up there with the best.
What happened? All the promised infrastructure has gone nowhere. It’s still a pain in the ass to take a bike on a train, not a single station has been refurbished (despite the promise they would all be ready this year) and the round the island bike path (again supposed to be ready this year) is now said to be 5 years from completion. Instead of island wide standards for bike lanes different counties are building things that are absolutely useless - but look pretty! There’s also the ridiculous counter-development plans going on at the same time to spray cement over the entire east coast: you can’t plan for both mass tourism and eco-travel at the same time in the same region!
So now the buzz has died down and is unlikely to come back. Way to miss the boat Taiwan! :bravo:
See, people coming here to have a good time like the Japanese for whom, their country is way too expensive makes sense. Why would a (Indian) tourist come to Taiwan, unless you have friends and family here? There are no historic monuments, no Great Wall, no forbidden city, no Angkor Wat no Borobudur, no Shwedagon, no Wat Pho , then what is there to shop? Singapore has its Gold thingies, Bangkok has Chatuchak, Myanmar has its Rubies, Jade etc. China has everything. People love to go to Seoul for the snow activities and then Sri Lanka is absolutely awesomely beautiful. Serenity?? If they have the cash? They go to Bhutan. Beaches?? Laos, Philippines, Malaysia all have better much advertised beaches. Then you can also combine Singapore-Malaysia-Indonesia trips and stop in HongKong. Taiwan is way out of the way. And expensive.
And food. Indian tourists, the swarms of them need their dal-chawal. They are deterred by hearing ‘beef noodle soup’.
There is your homework for you laddie. 