TAIWAN is aiming to draw about half a million Filipino visitors this year with the official launch of its “Undiscovered Taipei” tourism campaign in Manila over the weekend.
During the event held in Makati City, Taipei City’s Department of Information and Tourism (DIT) Yi-ting Liu told reporters that the number of visitors from the Philippines in 2018 grew by 44.13 percent to 419,105, from 290,784 in 2017.
“If we talk about the Philippines only, for all the tourists that are coming to Taiwan, 91 percent go to Taipei,” he said, while citing that Filipinos posted the highest growth of arrivals from Southeast Asia last year.
To sustain the momentum, the DIT aims to reintroduce the capital city to those who plan to revisit it and experience more of the local delicacies, old towns and even places with hot springs.
“There are more and more spots that the people who’ve been there for the first time, for sure the second time they haven’t been there,” he said.
As part of the campaign’s launch here, more than 50 local travel agencies met with Taipei’s hospitality business operators to help boost the number of Filipino visitors to the capital city of Taiwan.
The DIT gathered Taipei’s popular food and beverage businesses to showcase some of their authentic and classic dishes. It also relaunched YouTube sensation Mikey Bustos as the campaign’s ambassador.
Meanwhile, a new product promotion for local travelers was announced to the Manila-based media. This is a joint initiative between Taiwan’s top airliner Eva Air and online travel agency Klook.
Given that the DIT has been actively promoting Taiwan to the Philippine market for the third time this year, it expects the Filipino tourist volume to increase by the end of 2019.
“The number last year was 420,000 so I believe, this year, it could increase to 500,000. I believe there will be more,” Liu said.
The number of Filipino travelers going to Taiwan has increased following the Taipei’s introduction of the visa-free policy, which is set to expire next month.
Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Manila Director Jerry Chuang hinted at the possibility that the visa-free policy could be extended given the queries his office receive from local tourists who want to visit Taiwan.
“The visa-free policy has really brought Taiwan and the Philippines closer,” he said. “Our office, we try very hard to follow up. We have a lot of queries so we convey back to Taipei, that’s why we urge Taipei to make a decision soon.”
3 comments
I am hoping that the visa free entry to Taiwan will be extended as I already bought a ticket and paid the hotel for me and my husband as our anniversary trip on February next year. We chose Taiwan for next year trip because I want to experience the beauty of that country so I hope visa free entry is extended.
I hope they will release the visa free entry extension as I am planning to book my flight this August.
Here’s hoping the visa free entry will be extended! Planning to have a trip with my family this September for myself and my mom’s birthday!