Taipei, Dec. 14 (CNA) More countries are looking to woo Taiwanese tourists as outbound tourism continues to grow, said travel representatives from various countries at an international travel fair Friday.
"The reason is clear. Almost half of your [Taiwan's] population at least made a trip overseas last year, " Robert Young, a staff in Hungarian Trade Office in Taipei, spoke about Taiwan's tourism potential.
Hungary was among seven new presenters at the 2007 Taipei International Travel Fair taking place from Dec. 14-17 with 62 participating countries at the annual event. Other first-timers are Nauru, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu, the Solomon Islands and Greece.
According to statistics released by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) in November, the number of outbound Taiwanese tourist trips reached 7.68 million between January and October this year.
"Currently 15,000 Taiwanese tourists visit Hungary every year, and we're targeting 25,000," Young said, adding that negotiations on direct flights between Taiwan and Budapest is ongoing and hopefully a deal will be reached next year.
The Czech Republic has been trying to attract not only Taiwanese investment but tourists as well. Of 30,000 visitors last year, most of them were businessmen, CzechTourism representative Lucie Turkova said, adding that as bilateral trade and investment increase, tourism is also expected to boom and that's why they're here.
Travel agencies have also changed with the times and are going with the latest trends. In the past, most Taiwanese tourists wanted to visit as many countries and spots as possible, but that is no longer the case, said Mathias Hultgren, who represents the Swedish travel agency Scandinavian Perspectives Taiwan.
"Travel plans in the past basically excluded young people because only senior citizens were able to enjoy a two to three weeks trip, " Hulgren said. About 50,000 Taiwanese tourists visited Sweden last year, he said.
Agencies are also employing different strategies to attract Taiwanese tourists. Hultgren said their main target was those who have been to Europe but never visited Scandinavia, and people who are interested in seeing a different part of Europe.
"How many [Taiwanese] people visit Toronto every year? " Hultgren said, adding that Taiwanese have had the misconception that Sweden was too far away for an affordable trip, but the distance between Taipei and Stockholm is about the same as that between Taipei and Toronto.
As usual, Japan took up the most booths, 66 in all, although representatives from Hong Kong and Macao also made their presence felt at the fair.
DGBAS statistics showed that Hong Kong, Japan and Macao were the top three destinations for outbound Taiwanese tourists this year.