Special promo tour to Taiwan held

Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in the Philippines once again partnered with Eva Air and local travel agencies for the “Special Time to Visit Taiwan” promotional package tour from Sept. 21-24. This year’s tour had 155 participants compared with last year’s 80 attendees.

The tour included attendance at the Asia-Pacific Cultural Day and a guided tour around Taiwan’s famous and historical attractions like Taipei 101 and the National Palace Museum.

The group explored the north-east area of Taiwan during their visit to Yi Lan where they visited the National Center for Traditional Arts and get an in-depth experience of Taiwan’s diverse and unique local culture. The participants also experienced some do-it-yourself activities like fruit picking at a leisure farm, cooking scallion pancakes and participating in the lantern release at Shilen.

President Tsai Ing-Wen has launched the “New Southbound Policy” which aims to strengthen the partnerships and cooperation of Taiwan with its neighboring countries. The Philippines, given its proximity and many commonalities with Taiwan, is one of the most prioritized countries in pursuing these cross-cultural exchanges.

To emphasize the growing relationship of Taiwan and the Philippines in the field of tourism, Gary Song-Huann Lin, representative of Taiwan to the Philippines, pointed out that there has been a 227 percent increase in Filipinos visiting Taiwan only for tourism purposes compared to last year. From January to July 2017 alone, 162,139 Filipino nationals have gone to Taiwan.

Lin also highlighted the efforts of both countries in facilitating two-way tourism and people-to-people interactions. Taiwan has not only increased direct flights to the country but has also relaxed the visa requirements through the provision of the E-visa option and the free travel authorization certificate for Filipino travelers.