Chapter 4 Case Study:
4.1 Policy Analysis: Tourism Policies of Taiwan Tourism Bureau from
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Table 4.1 Information of Interviewees
Name Position Time
Hsieh Wei Jun Director-general of Tourism
Bureau
20150514
Xu Rui Ying Section Chief International
Affairs Division
20150514
4.1 Policy Analysis: Tourism Policies of Taiwan Tourism Bureau from
2008-2014
In order to build up and promote nation brand, as other Asian countries do, Taiwan adopted tourism industry to construct its national brand. What is the mechanism behind? During the time period from 2008 to 2014, Taiwan tourism bureau launched different promotion campaigns and strategies in different years to reach its objectives. From the data of tourism policy from Taiwan Tourism Bureau website, according to the project and annual goals, this thesis divided them into three phases:
4.1.1 The Year of 2008-2009: Development Vision for 2015: First-Stage Three
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Year Sprint Program8
In the year of 2008, Taiwan Tourism Bureau adopted the Executive Yuan's
"Development Vision for 2015: First-Stage Three-Year Sprint Program (2007-2009)", to promote "Tour Taiwan Years 2008-2009" and achieve a 7% growth in visitor arrivals. Therefore, Taiwan Tourism Bureau planned to improve the domestic tourism environment through integration of the quality first, including strengthening the transportation between scenic sites and tourism networks service, raising the quality of lodging and investment in hotel constructions toward the international standards, promoting the training for tourism staffs in hotel industry on their service, and broadening the service through the establishment the special language such as Japanese and Korean in tourism service. Through the integration of the domestic tourism resources, Taiwan Tourism Bureau further strengthened the promotion domestically and internationally.
Followed the program in 2008, in 2009, the Taiwan Tourism Bureau further developed "Tour Taiwan Year 2009" and the "TOP-notch Tourism Plan" as well as using "Growth and regeneration" as their core values. Under the direction of
"multi-dimensional opening and reaching out to the whole world," it is aiming at developing Taiwan as a major travel destination in Asia. Especially the project of Tour
8 The tourism policies of 2008-2009 are based on 2008 to 2009 Tourism Policy from the Taiwan
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Taiwan Year 2009 connects the domestic integration and the promotion to the international market through the promotion of the Taiwan's top 10 popular scenic spots, the upgrade of industry standards in tourism facilities, the development of tourism attractions to the global market and the training of the service personnel as the four major focus. At the same time, to reduce the cost and construct the friendly environmental in tourism service, Taiwan Tourism Bureau coordinates the tourism development plan with the "Bicycle Recreation Network Demonstration Plan". In addition, to seize the opportunity of improved Cross-Straits relations, Taiwan Tourism Bureau has developed MICE9, cruises tourism services to cater to the increasing number growth of Chinese tourist under the convenience in transportation brought by the Three Direct Link Policy. Under the four major focuses, Taiwan Tourism Bureau has implemented the promotion campaign both domestically and internationally, created the convenient environment for tourism, and developed the diversity of tourism product under the project of "2009 Tour Taiwan Year" and the "TOP-notch Tourism Plan."
4.1.2 The Year of 2010-2012: Project Vanguard for Excellence in Tourism10
9 For the introduction of MICE, please refer to. Japan Tourism Agency. What is MICE?:
http://www.mlit.go.jp/kankocho/zh-tw/shisaku/kokusai/mice.html
10 The tourism policies of 2010-2012 are based on 2010 to 2012 Tourism Policy from the Taiwan Tourism Website: http://admin.taiwan.net.tw/public/public_en.aspx?no=6
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The next phase from 2010-2012, the promotion has continued the "Project Vanguard for Excellence in Tourism" and continued to improve the quality as well as quantity of the tourism service, especially to increase the tourism revenue from foreign markets.
In the year of 2010 and 2011, Taiwan Tourism Bureau initiated the Project Vanguard for Excellence in Tourism and implement the "Medium-term plan for Construction of Major Tourist Sites" to integrate the resources in facility services, including the development of national scenic areas and establishment of unique features of local places. In addition, Taiwan Tourism Bureau promoted the themed tourism, for example the low-carbon tourist islands in Green Island and Little Liuqiu as well as the Eastern Taiwan Bikeway Network Demonstration Plan to develop green tourism. Finally, to promote the project of "Taiwan Easy Go", Taiwan Tourism Bureau is aiming at providing services without borders by the cooperation with the local government through their local tourism travel information and the integration on service of transportation and ticket selling services.
In the year of 2012, Taiwan Tourism Bureau continued the Project Vanguard for Excellence in Tourism, but further promoted the image of Taiwan with a new slogan
"Taiwan-the Heart of Asia" and "Time for Taiwan" to boost the importance of the tourism in Taiwan become the heart of Asian tourism, following the three major plan,
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"Project Summit", "Project Keystone", and "Project Propeller" to enhance the quality of Taiwan image.
4.1.3 The Year of 2013-2014: Continued the Project Vanguard for Excellence in
Tourism
From the year of 2013 to 2014, Taiwan Tourism Bureau has implemented the program of "Project Vanguard for Excellence in Tourism" and "Tour Taiwan and Experience the Centennial", and strengthened the concept of marketing, integration, transportation to reach different annual objectives.
In 2013, Taiwan Tourism Bureau continued the Project Vanguard for Excellence in Tourism, but strengthened the marketing promotion under the slogan of "Time for Taiwan" to improve the development of domestic and internationally. Domestically, Taiwan Tourism Bureau balanced the development on area economic and tourism.
Internationally, Taiwan Tourism Bureau featured the Taiwan brand image in tourism and the experience of international tourists with the image that Taiwan is an travel friendly country, which with high quality and convenient services in service around the all island.
In 2014, Taiwan Tourism Bureau followed the Project Vanguard for Excellence in Tourism in previous years and continually strengthened the major focus on
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marketing, integration, and transportation under the specific principle of innovation and sustainability. On marketing, the authority promotes the image of Taiwan through Taiwan Tourism Event Calendar to boost special events and activities into
international market, including the competition between counties in tourism campaigns and the role of local government as a platform in tourism development, which further boosts the local industries to grow. In integration, the government initiated the information platform in tourism for the senior citizens to provide them the suitable travel environment. Also, the government has integrated the tourism with the educational activities, including biodiversity and environmental protection. Finally, on the part of transportation, Taiwan Tourism Bureau provided the domestic and international tourists a barrier-free tourism services in transportation through strengthening the quality in the service in Taiwan Tourist Shuttle11. In order to enhance the tourism environment and the quality of satisfaction, especially on the cuisine, scenery and hospitality of Taiwanese people. In the year of 2014, the main point of the promotion focuses on the innovation and sustainability on the Project Vanguard for Excellence in Tourism and adopting "Time for Taiwan" as the marketing slogan.
From tourism policies of Taiwan Tourism Bureau, we could observe that under
11 Taiwan Tourist Shuttle service, is designed for convenient travel. From the major attractions, Taiwan train station, High Speed Rail stations, the shuttles take passengers to the main tourist attractions in
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different time periods Taiwan Tourism Bureau has set different goals, from 2008-2009 the stable development and economic growth in tourism, 2010-2012 under the Project Vanguard for Excellence in Tourism to improve both quality and quantity in Taiwan tourism service, which further attracts the tourism income from foreign markets.
While in 2013-2014, followed by the Project Vanguard for Excellence in Tourism, but Taiwan Tourism Bureau strengthened the concept of marketing, integration,
transportation to reach the goal of increase annual tourism revenue.