Tourism 2030 White Paper General Consultation Meeting on Tourism Policy —Tourism in Everyone’s Mind Working Together with the Ministry for Promotion of Tourism

2019.12.02

In order to consolidate Taiwan tourism industry’s common vision for travel development, the Tourism Bureau of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) invited around 150 representatives from tourism-related industries across the country to hold a “Tourism 2030 White Paper General Consultation Meeting on Tourism Policy” on November 18 (2019). A pragmatic approach is expected to solve issues related to industry development, promote the sustainable development of Taiwan’s tourism industry, plan Taiwan’s tourism development blueprint for the next decade, and create a new phase for Taiwan’s tourism development.

in the recent years, Taiwan’s tourism development has been growing rapidly. While the “quantity” has grown steadily, the focus has also been placed on the enhancement of “quality”. Minister Lin Chia-Lung of MOTC stated that, in order to promote stable and sustainable development in Taiwan ’s tourism industry, it is necessary to implement the visions of “Tourism-Based Country” and “Mainstreaming Tourism”, set up the Tourism Agency to expand investment resources, include various Ministries in the tourism team to jointly strive for Taiwan’s tourism, make full use of both hard and soft capabilities in Taiwan’s tourism, and let tourism lead the locomotive of Taiwan’s industries.

The Tourism Bureau of MOTC has listed the “Tourism 2030 White Paper on Tourism Policy” as one of the important key plans of the year(2019), and has begun the formulation in February. As of April, two respective industry representative consultation meetings, four experts and scholars’ forums, one ministerial discussion meeting, two tourism industry director consultation meetings, one county and city government tourism bureau (office) director consultation meeting, one expert and scholar consultation meeting were convened. Last week (November 12th, 13th and 15th),three industry forums were held. After today’s general consultation meeting, a total of 15 meetings were held in an effort to bring consensus and cohesion forces together from all parties.

Today’s meeting continued the discussions on the main policy guidelines of the “Tourism 2030 White Paper on Tourism Policy”, and six in-depth group sessions were conducted on policy & system, market expansion through sea and air, smart tourism and travel, travel industry, lodging and entertainment industry, and scenic area resources consolidation and maintenance, etc. The conclusion of discussions during these meeting are as follows:

In the aspect of “policy& system”, with “Tourism-Based Country” as the vision for tourism development and establishing “Mainstreaming Tourism” as one of the core implementations for various departments, the development goals will be bringing 20 million tourists to Taiwan in 2030 and 240 million domestic travelers, as well as developing KPI’s for the domestic travel market.

In terms of “market expansion”, the international mainstream, potential and specified markets will continue to be promoted, shaping Taiwan’s regional brands. Through regional Destination Marketing/Management Organizations(DMO), cross-county/city and cross-region tourism resources will be marketed, and an international marketing support system through sea and air for Taiwan tourism will be constructed and deployed to expand the tourism market.

In terms of “smart tourism and travel”, a user-centered integrated transportation mobile service model will be constructed to actively consolidate transit pass/ticket, mobile payments and online booking functions in order to improve convenience and friendliness for passengers.And in respond to digital development trends such as 5G, AI, IOT, and self-driving, smart technology applications will be actively incorporated to promote digital transformation of tourism and establish the convergence of tourism information.

In the aspect of “travel industry”, the energy of Travel Industry Association and organizations will be combined to assist the travel industry to incorporate digital applications, develop suitable business operation models, and organize travel platforms, synergies among out-of-school learning (internships) for all schools and travel agency businesses, and overseas marketing. In addition to ensuring the quality of travel and safety and protection of consumers’ rights and interests, a rolling review of outdated management measures for the travel industry was conducted, coordination from the Ministry of Labor was prompted to study the application of flexible working hours according to character is tics specific to travel industry as well as precautionary practices and regulations for mass transportation industry during strike periods.

In the area of “lodging and entertainment industry”, co-ordinations among Ministries were conducted to strengthen coaching for the industry, enhance the industry’s digital marketing capabilities, urge local governments to reinforce the investigation and punishment of illegal travel lodgings;additionally, issues related to base-level human resources shortage in the travel and lodging industry, adjustments to“One Compulsory Rest Day and One Flexible Rest Day”regulations, and other issues related to the industry, such as land taxes, entertainment taxes, etc.were also discussed to better suit the tourism industry; coaching will be provided to recreation industry players in the aspects of theme differentiation, brand image IP (intelligent property rights) deepening, development of specialty product and products for all age groups, Muslim-friendly environment, and talent cultivation.

In terms of “scenic area resources consolidation and maintenance”, consolidate and maintain to enhance quality of overall tourism environment, sustain ably use tourism resources, continue excellent themed and general travel environment, create regional tourism brands and internationally highlighted events, and strengthen friendly services on bike path networks in order to Innovate in-depth travels, drive internationalization of local regions, promote balanced regional development, and incorporate the concept of aesthetics in design.

Through morning group meetings and afternoon general forums, the White Paper General Consultation Meeting on Tourism Policy has gone to the stage where the opinions from all parties involved are collected. In addition to convening all Ministries or parties involved for discussions on the Industry-Academia suggestions, on December 6, the Tourism Bureau of MOTC will invite the government-industry-university-institute to participate in the “National Tourism Development Conference”, and conduct further in-depth discussions on relevant issues to strengthen consensus. In the future, the tourism development policy will be based on the thinking of “Tourism-Based Country” and looking from the height of the country’s overall development, so that Tourism will be in everyone’s mind and everyone can work together with the Ministry to Promote tourism. Let “Mainstreaming Tourism” be promoted and implemented, so tourism will become the locomotive which leads the country’s overall economic development.