The Taiwan Tourism Bureau (TTB) is working to promote Taiwan as a top-of-mind destination to incentive groups from India, as part of its overall aim to grow the Indian inbound market by 20 per cent by 2020.
“Taiwan and India have a close business relationship in fields like IT and technology. We want to promote Taiwan as an incentive destination among Indian businesses. Previously, we received an incentive group of 200 pax from India’s TATA group,” said Trust Lin, director, TTB Singapore Branch.
To lure incentive groups, TTB is promising help in the form of monetary offset, as well as its willingness to collaborate with private stakeholders, in a bid to “project Taiwan as a new incentive destination” to Indians.
“If one is handling a group of more than 50 pax staying in Taiwan for more than three nights, they qualify (for an incentive of) US$26 per pax. In addition, we can cooperate with PCOs for joint marketing,” revealed Lin.
This is part of Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy, which focuses on 18 international markets such as India, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. In total, these markets are 25 per cent of all overall international arrivals to Taiwan.
Among these countries, India holds the most potential for growth coming from its low base of 38,000 arrivals, Lin pointed out.
As such, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council has taken steps to court Indian outbound travellers by organising a Taiwan Expo in New Delhi for the first time last year. The expo was a key event aimed at enhancing economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.
Furthermore, TTB believes that growth in the Indian incentive market, apart from helping to increase overall tourist arrivals, will eventually result in more direct flights between the two countries. Currently, there is only a thrice-weekly service linking New Delhi and Taipei by China Airlines.
“We want to have direct flights from other Indian cities like Mumbai as well. However, the current traffic is restricting airlines to operate direct connections,” Lin lamented. “If segments like incentive travel can grow significantly from India, it will be a stronger case for more direct connections.”
The growing interest in courting the Indian market comes at a time as tourist arrivals from Mainland China – Taiwan’s traditional main source market – continues to dwindle.
