ASIA- PACIFIC REPORT: TAIWAN TEMPTS VANCOUVER
Inspiration: A visit to Vancouver was the starting point for a new emphasis on cycling tours
Just as B. C. is constantly trying to attract more tourists from the Far East, the Far East is trying to do the same with us.
And it’s always interesting to see what foreigners come up with as a tourism draw, as it shows how they view Canadians in general.
Earlier this month, Taiwan’s tourism bureau made a pitch in a new campaign aimed at attracting more Vancouverites to visit the island this year.
The focus, however, isn’t the typical array of exotic Taiwanese dishes or cultural sites like the National Palace Museum or Taipei 101, the skyscraper that ranks among the tallest in the world.
Instead, after trying to figure out what makes British Columbians tick, Taiwan’s tourism industry took aim at our lifestyle — specifically, Vancouverites’ apparent love affair with cycling.
Wayne Liu, deputy director of Taiwan’s Tourism Bureau, said he was first struck by the potential of targeting Canadians’ lifestyle a decade ago when he first visited Vancouver.
“I was here for a meeting, but I found people here really know how to enjoy life,” Liu said. “After the meeting, I rented a bike and took it around Stanley Park. It was very nice. It left a wonderful impression of the city in my mind.”
Liu was back in town June 5 to kick off the new tourism campaign with the aid of a flash mob and Canadian Olympic cyclist Zach Bell.
In recent years, Taiwan has made biking a key part of its domestic lifestyle tourism strategy. Bike lanes circumnavigating the island are being built, and cycling is now a major part of its lifestyle- driven campaign to lure Westerners to visit.
Among promotional events was a tour earlier this year of bike riders who rode from Vancouver to San Francisco with the aid of a Taiwanese non- profit group. Similar events had been staged in mainland China and Southeast Asia.
During the campaign kickoff in Vancouver, campaign organizers filled Robson Square — first with dancers, then with video- screen-equipped cycling stations showing the paths a cyclist would take on five different bike routes in Taiwan. The idea was for people here to visualize themselves taking part in the tour in virtual reality with the hope that they would follow up by taking in the physical reality.
Liu said police stations along the bike paths and lanes throughout Taiwan are being retooled into “cyclist stations,” where bikers can get food, drinks and travel information, and have repairs done. Some stations are even being fitted with showers.
“In these last few years, we have really pushed to promote cycling in Taiwan domestically,” he said. “But more importantly, in foreign markets, the sightseeing phase of promotion is over. We are now entering a phase of lifestyle tourism, where quality of the visitors’ experience is more important than the quantity of what they experience in their travels.”
Chief among the quality experiences Liu promoted is the bike path around Sun Moon Lake, a threehour journey around the island’s largest lake, which is famous for its clear turquoise waters. The route was chosen by CNN Travel in 2012 as one of the top 10 scenic cycling experiences in the world, and Taiwanese officials are confident it will draw the attention of avid Vancouver cyclists. Liu described it as an inverse version of the ride around Stanley Park.
It is a bold step for an Asian travel destination to step away from the conventional — and safe — strategy of promoting ethnic cuisine and cultural artifacts to draw western visitors. Cyclists present the additional challenge of bike transport, but Liu said airlines and Taiwanese travel organizations are ready for the task of dealing with foreign cyclists and their demands.
Most importantly, Liu said he is confident in the campaign because of Taiwan’s most valuable tourism draw: its people.
“Our most attractive feature to foreign visitors is our people,” he said. “It’s hard to promote people through television advertisements or traditional media.
“But events like these give people here a sense of the power of community, and foreign ambassadors like Zach are tremendously important because they can transfer that experience of people back to friends in the Canadian community. It is through activities like cycling that we hope Vancouverites can see Taiwan — and, by extension, live our culture.”