Spurring Local Travel through Special Tourism Events
2021 Taiwan Lantern Festival
The Taiwan Lantern Festival took a new turn in 2021. Under the theme "Taiwan Lantern Festival: Blessing Taiwan," lantern displays were arranged at venues throughout Taiwan. Secondary lantern displays included the lanterns "Light Coming: Vitality Beyond Crisp Winter" at Checheng's Zhumu Pond at the Sun Moon Lake National Scenic Area; and the "Golden Calf" and Nostalgic Lantern Area at the Beimen Visitor Center in the Southwest Coast National Scenic Area. The lantern "Welcome Gate" was displayed at Baguashan Ecological Visitor Center in the Tri-Mountain National Scenic Area. The Animal Starlight and Passing Down Skills lantern area moved to Kinmen, marking the first outlying island lantern display in the history of the Taiwan Lantern Festival. The relocation of lantern areas throughout Taiwan enabled the public to enjoy the art and feeling of the Lantern Festival during COVID.
2021 Taiwan Cycling Festival
Since its inception in 2010, the Taiwan Cycling Festival has transformed innovative transportation developments into new tourism resources and turned Taiwan into a world-class destination for bicycle tourism. The 2021 Taiwan KOM Challenge attracted 46 international and 248 domestic cyclists and presented to the world Taiwan's natural beauty, from the magnificent seascapes of Eastern Taiwan to Taroko Gorge. The annual Sun Moon Lake Cycling, Music, and Fireworks Festival, held on October 30, 2021, spurred a local tourism boom with a musical feast and series of bicycle activities.
Taiwan East Coast Land Arts Festival
Held annually since 2015, the Taiwan East Coast Land Arts Festival features large-scale outdoor work by artists-in-residence, art fairs, concerts, and other activities that have earned wide praise for this popular event. Under the theme of "Song of the Sea and Mountains," the 2021 festival invited six artists long active in the East Coast area to create works of art in Yanliao, Hualien (Hualien Visitor Center), Shiyusan in Taitung, the Chenggong Seashore Park, Jialulan, and other scenic areas. With exquisite skill and vision, these artists treated visitors to a world of art and culture in Eastern Taiwan. The Moonlight Sea Concerts was live-streamed to an online audience of more than 16,000 people on September 22.
Promotion of Top 2021-2022 Taiwan Top-10 Hot Spring Destinations–40 Degrees of Serenity
The 2021–2022 Taiwan Top-10 Hot Springs event again centered on the "40 Degrees of Serenity" campaign. Under the theme of "Warm Travels with Hot Springs," the event brought together over 400 businesses in 19 hot spring areas around Taiwan. Internationally renowned designer Sabra Andre, "Knitting Queen" Gioia Pan, and designers previously featured at the Berlin Fashion Week and New York Fashion Week transformed the unique features and stories of 19 hot spring areas around Taiwan into a distinctive collection of 19 bathrobes showcasing a unique hot spring fashion. Integrated with the Quintuple Stimulus Voucher and Domestic Travel Voucher programs, the event encouraged locals to visit hot spring destinations throughout Taiwan for bathing and seasonal cuisine to invigorate local spending during the fall and winter seasons.
Hot spring experts and celebrity internet hosts from around the world were invited to join Tourism Bureau spokesperson OhBear on the Mission: Hot Spring Minibus tour of hot spring areas around Taiwan for photos and fun. The event was broadcast through push notifications on Facebook in a pseudo-TV series style, presenting the fun, friendly, heart-warming, healing, and fashionable qualities and stories of Taiwan's hot springs areas.
2021 Top-100 Classic Town Passport: Experiencing Local Charm
Each of Taiwan's top-100 towns has its own distinctive character, from scenic hillsides and traditional Hakka towns to international slow travel and cycling towns. In conjunction with the 2021 Year of Bicycle Tourism marketing focus, the Tourism Bureau handed out 20,000 Top-100 Classic Town Passports for this year's event, along with a digital stamp collection app, three online events, and an in-person "Cycle Taiwan with OhBear" activity. The event linked towns and bicycle routes in various national scenic areas and arranged flash mob and media promotions to attract visitors to 100 towns. The mobile website for the event attracted 1,958,788 views and related videos garnered more 100,000 views through the channels of online influencers.
Taiwan Tourism Biannual Calendar Activity Development Plan
The Tourism Bureau assisted local governments and private organizations in arranging 12 events, including: The Chiayi City International Wind Music Activities Quality Improvement Plan, 2021 Yunlin International Puppet Festival, 2021 Taichung City Mazu International Festival, 2021 Miaoli Bombing the Dragon Activity, 2021 Sanyi Wood Carving Festival, 2021 Christmasland in New Taipei City, 2021 Taipei Lantern Festival, 2021 Sword Grass Season on the Caoling Historic Trail, 2021 Hawk-Watching on Guanyinshan—Guanyin LOHAS Walking Activity, 2021 Taiwan Maolin Purple Butterfly Valley Biennial Butterfly Beauty Festival, 2021 Wedding under the Divine Tree of Alishan, and Alishan Tea Festival in Four Seasons. It also completed 68 quality improvements.
