Premier Sean Chen today urged the nation's tourism industry to pay equal attention to visitor numbers and service quality when taking its development to the next level.
At the 2012 donors conference and 56th anniversary celebration of the Taiwan Visitors Association held in Taipei, the premier remarked that the industry has been seeing stellar performances in terms of "quantity," with the number of visitors to Taiwan exceeding 6 million in 2011 and possibly topping 7 million this year. To ensure sustainable growth in the industry, the Executive Yuan also made improving quality of tourism services a goal in its Economic Power-Up Plan announced in September.
Cross-border consumption is an essential element of international trade in services, of which tourism is a prime example. The premier added that people—or visitors—are key in the tourism business, which is why the local trade association calls itself the Taiwan Visitors Association. The word "visitors" refers to both foreigners visiting Taiwan and Taiwanese citizens touring overseas. For professionals in the trade, developing tourism means encouraging tourists to come and spend money in Taiwan.
In the future, the industry should work as much toward improving service standards as drawing overseas visitors, Chen said. Attracting foreign tourist dollars will benefit related industries and drive economic growth domestically.