Special Section: A New Post-COVID Tourism Model: Prioritizing Local and Domestic Travel
Since 2020, Taiwan's tourism industry has been severely impacted by COVID. In response, the Tourism Bureau has fully coordinated with policies to rescue and revitalize the tourism industry, promote COVID prevention measures, and continue improving the domestic tourism environment and resources. County and city governments and tourism-related industries also have been promoting local tourism, including in-depth travel, to encourage domestic travelers to re-discover and fall in love with Taiwan.
Creating a COVID Prevention Hotel National Team to Help Hotels Transform and Stabilize Operations
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) has progressively increased COVID alert levels and controls amid the worsening global pandemic. Subsidies were provided to help local governments accelerate the conversion of hotels to serve COVID quarantine functions to meet the needs of people quarantining at home and hotels, while also considering the rights and interests of quarantining people and domestic COVID prevention and safety. As of December 31, 2011, subsidies of NT$3.63 billion had been approved to help hotels adapt facilities for COVID prevention and stabilize guest sources.
Stabilizing Tourism Employee Income and Talent Demand with Effective Bailouts
The travel industry plunged in 2021 amid the continuing spread of COVID and border restrictions around the world. The 2021 Maintenance Relief 4.0 and 5.0 programs helped the industry maintain basic operations and develop sustainably. NT$1.865 billion in subsidies were provided for the salaries of travel industry employees and operating costs. About NT$136 million in subsidies were disbursed in conjunction with the suspension of domestic travel under Taiwan's COVID prevention policy. Subsidies for tour guides and tour service personnel benefitted 25,020 people.
From May 19 to July 26, 2021, Taiwan remained on Level 3 COVID alert and suspended domestic tourism and entertainment operations. NT$58.19 million in subsidies were provided to the tourism and amusement park industries for the cost of canceled tour groups.
Hotel operations also fell sharply due to international border closures and declining demand from domestic tourism. From May to July, a total of 2,995 hotel operators received subsidies topping NT$2.833 billion to offset operational costs; and 8,738 guest houses received about NT$437 million in subsidies. Due to continued international border closures, 380 hotels mainly serving international visitors received about NT$379 million in subsidies to cover operating costs in September 2021.
Revitalizing and Accelerating the Recovery of Domestic Tourism
To sustain the safe travel boom, the Tourism Bureau continued to support the transformation of the travel industry and incentivize travel agencies to offer package group tours during the off-season. In addition, it implemented the Winter Weekday Group Travel Incentive Program from December 2020 to January 2021. It also partnered with local governments to promote winter group travel and encourage counties and cities to subsidize group travel according to local characteristics. The joint subsidies aimed to attract more tour group visits to support the domestic travel market. A total of NT$251.73 million was provided, stimulating about 390,000 trips generating direct and indirect tourism benefits of NT$2.497 billion.
Guiding the Digital Transformation of the Tourism Industry and Promoting Smart Tourism
The Tourism Bureau introduced an online system to handle applications for relief subsidies in a contact-free format consistent with COVID control policies. The system reduces the labor cost and paperwork involved in the application process. It also handles verification and disbursement functions online, increasing convenience and providing an opportunity to promote digital transformation.
The Tourism Bureau supported cooperation between the travel agencies and local industries, consolidation of local resources through travel agencies or OTA platforms, assistance with diversified marketing of the industry, strengthening of practical ecommerce skills, enhancement of the digital marketing capabilities of local industries, and planning of travel products meeting local needs and emphasizing local characteristics. It also promoted the launch of limited tour itineraries under a "one area, one brand" concept highlighting regional characteristics and the themes of ecology, culture, food, entertainment, and urban tourism to increase visitor numbers and revenue in related local industries.
Helping Travel Agencies Transform and Package Innovative, High-Quality Tourism Products
The Tourism Bureau implemented a Program to Incentivize Travel Agencies to Promote Specialty Tours from October 13, 2021, and drafted the Directions for Incentivizing Travel Agency Promotion of Specialty Group Tours to encourage travel agencies to develop innovative and high-quality travel products integrating attractions arranged by various ministries. About NT$512.94 million in related subsidies were approved as of the end of December 2021, benefitting 2,179 companies and 25,665 groups, spurring NT$3.9 billion in tourism revenue.
Strengthening Infrastructure for Post-COVID International Tourism
To promote the recovery and revitalization of Taiwan's COVID-impacted hot spring industry, the Tourism Bureau helped county and city governments to improve the quality of recreational facilities at six hot spring areas and prepare for the post-COVID tourism market.
Subsidies totaling NT$259,322,487 were provided to the amusement park industry to invest in new facilities and equipment, as well as to incentivize innovative services and digital upgrades, spurring about NT$1 billion in new investment.
Subsidies were also made available to the hotel industry for quality improvement projects related to creating Muslim-friendly facilities, barrier-free rooms, and planning and updating hotel facilities. A total of 990 subsidy applications were received.
Integrating Tourism Circles with Local Cuisine, Lodging, Tours, Shopping, and Travel
The Northeast and Yilan Coast, Tri-Mountain, Sun Moon Lake, Alishan, Southwest Coast, Siraya, and Dapeng Bay national scenic area administrations formed 10 tourism circles as platforms to integrate cross-domain resource sharing and guiding business owners in developing distinctive local products. Industry partners were invited to participate in 166 product launches, conferences, and matchmaker exchanges to build consensus. Assistance was also provided to 84 businesses to improve store ambiance and upgrade 84 product packaging. Assistance was also provided in resource inventories and development of local specialty tours. These programs produced 517 specialty tours, encouraged 257 people to return to their hometowns for employment, and created NT$867.3 million in tourism revenue.
Amplifying the Benefits of the Quintuple Voucher Program with Domestic Travel Vouchers
In conjunction with the Executive Yuan's Quintuple Stimulus Voucher policy, the Tourism Bureau promoted the Domestic Travel Voucher program to encourage public consumption of tourism products, increase tourism industry revenue, accelerate the recovery of the domestic travel market, and achieve a multiplier effects for the benefits of the Quintuple Voucher stimulus program. A total of 2.4 million NT$1,000 Domestic Travel Vouchers were issued through a lottery system that attracted 13,534,165 participants, making it the most popular of the five stimulus voucher programs.
Promoting Taiwan Tourism through Virtual and In-Person Channels
The Tourism Bureau continued to arrange international promotional activities in line with COVID prevention measures in target markets. The bureau strengthened online promotions, including participation in online travel exhibitions, promotional conferences, influencer livestreams, and remote featured experiences. In-person activities were adapted to the COVID regulations in various target markets, including promotional activities arranged in cooperation with local Taiwanese businesses. A total of 998 events were organized in 2021 to maintain the global popularity of Taiwan tourism.
