Mohit Rathod – Mumbai
Taiwan Tourism Bureau (TTB) recently conducted a workshop and B2B session for travel trade in Mumbai, consisting of presentations by trade partners and B2B interactions. Arthur Hsieh, director of TTB Singapore Office, revealed that Mumbai is currently the top market in India contributing to tourism in Taiwan. Hsieh said, “Mumbai carries great potential for us. Most of the movements from the India market come from Mumbai, which is a reason behind organising this event. We want to create more awareness among the Indian travel trade. Before coming to Mumbai, we had done workhops in Kolkata and Bengaluru. However, Mumbai remains at the top.”
Mumbai is connected to Taiwan with Cathay Pacific’s operations on Mumbai-Taipei, Mumbai-Kaohsiung and Mumbai-Taichung routes; which is considered an important factor. Cathay Pacific currently operates 10 weekly flights from Mumbai and 48 across India. In order to attract mosre tourism activities from India, the event stressed on easy visa process, incentives, connectivity and safety, along with tourism offerings. Overall, outbound travel from India to Taiwan is increasing around 20 per cent annually.
“MICE is growing and we have been receiving many queries from Indian travel agents. Taipei is a key destination visited by Indian travellers, but they are also showing interest in explornig Southern Taiwan; cruises are also popular among them. The average stay of Indian travellers in Taiwan is five-six days. As part of promoting Taiwan as a destination in the India market, our strategies will include workshops, increase in investment budget, advertisements across various media platforms,” Hsieh added.
Globally, Hong Kong is currently the top contributor to tourism in Taiwan, with over 1.5 million arrivals annually; followed by Singapore with 400,000 arrivals.
