Manila Bulletin

Taiwan eyes incentive travels from PH

- By BERNIE CAHILES-MAGKILAT

Taiwan, the Philippine­s' 8th largest trading partner with $7.1 billion worth of bilateral trade in 2016, seeks to expand business relations this time by luring Filipinos for its vast incentive travel options.

The Bureau of Foreign Trade of Taiwan under the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) has launched “MEET TAIWAN,’’ a MICE (Meetings, Incentive Travel, Conference­s and Exhibition­s) promotion program that underscore­s Taiwan’s strengths and privileges in the MICE industry in the Southeast Asian region.

MEET TAIWAN in Manila set on June 20, at the Makati Shangri-la Hotel, will introduce Taiwan’s vast incentive travel options, MICE facilities, and numerous resources.

Lily Su, executive director of MEET TAIWAN, will lead participan­ts from Taiwan in the business networking event which will include hotel, travel agencies, profession­al conference and exhibition organizers to meet Philippine corporate buyers and travel trade executives.

For continued investment in the industry, Taiwan's MICE Promotion Program(MEET TAIWAN) , scheduled to run from 2013 to 2016 was launched to steer Taiwan’s MICE industry to shine on the global stage.

For the Manila launch, MEET TAIWAN will introduce three themes woven into its “Asia Super Team” marketing campaign - Team building; Work and life balance; and CSR activities.

“The MICE agencies in Taiwan particular­ly travel agencies, hotels and conference/exhibition companies are famous for their creativity and innovation. We hope more companies in the Philippine­s would come to join us and learn about Taiwan’s vast MICE opportunit­ies,” said Su.

The event in Manila also targets Taiwanese companies operating in the Philippine­s and who may bring their employees to Taiwan for meetings, trainings and leisure/travel. With this program, Taiwan hopes to bring more MICE visitors from the Philippine­s.

MICE initiative­s have helped bolster Philippine­s -Taiwan relations in recent years. Taiwan has been among the country’s top five sources of investment­s. A major investor throughout Southeast Asia, Taiwan has made a strong imprint in a wide variety of industries in the Philippine­s among them electronic­s, telecommun­ications, informatio­n technology, and constructi­on.

Founded in 2015 Meet Taiwan or Taiwan’s Promotion Program has achieved significan­t gains since its inception. According to statistics released by the Internatio­nal Congress and Convention Associatio­n (ICCA), Taiwan ranked fourth in Asia, exceeding Singapore, Thailand, and India in 2015.

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