 "Photo: Reuters")
The Indian market is one of the fastest growing in the world with travellers from the country among the worlds highest spenders, says Trust Lin, Director of Taiwan Tourism Board.
"Indian tourists are among the world's highest-spending globetrotters. Their spending power has been estimated to be four times that of the Chinese and Japanese," Lin told IANS in an e-mail interview from Singapore," Lin said.
"Today, the Indian market is one of the fastest growing in the world and the Indian traveller is now among the world's highest spender. We are very keen to get our share of this potential market and Indian agencies are also very eager to know about the Taiwan market," he added.
Lin said India is indeed a growing market for Taiwan tourism.
"Taiwan has received a good response from the Indian travellers over the last few years, especially since our Group Visa policy was introduced. Also, tourism from India to Taiwan has increased largely due to consistent efforts in building awareness and perception about the destination," he said.
With 'Brand India' being an important market for many countries, Taiwan also eyes Indian market.
"Brand India is extremely important for us. It's economy is one of the fastest growing in the world, With a population of about 1.33 billion and GDP- seventh largest in the world, growing by 7 per cent + yearly till 2020, the country offers enormous potential for future growth in outbound travel.
"India's population is expected to overtake China as the world's largest in the next five years, and it's young, tech-savvy, educated middle class will double in size to 547 million shortly thereafter," he said.
"We are confident that with the newly evolving Indian traveller will find a unique appeal for Taiwan," added Lin.
So how Taiwan plans to build it's place in India?
"Taiwan is blessed with natural beauty, scenic areas, great food, astonishing history and culture and Taipei 101, this makes it a great destination for the Indian traveller. We are anticipating a high number of arrivals to Taiwan from India," he said.
"We are promoting Taiwan as Asia's best kept secret and promoting seven major verticals- adventure, MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Events), Family fun, golf, romance, wellness and women only. We are continuously doing lots of destination awareness programs in India.
"The new Visa norm for leisure, which talks about expired and valid visas, has helped to grow leisure traffic from India. Indian Nationals are now entitled to free Taiwan visa which can be applied online -- so it's now even easier to plan a leisure holiday or MICE event for a visa to travel to Taiwan," he added.
