Taiwan a hit with M’sian tourists

Welcome to Taiwan: (From left) Kho, Wu and Phua at the press conference in Wisma MATTA.

KUALA LUMPUR: Taiwan is becoming more popular with Malaysians as a holiday destination as the number of Malaysian tourists to the island has been on the rise.

It received 256,703 Malaysian visitors between January and July this year, compared with 215,354 for the same period in 2016, said Taiwan Tourism Bureau KL Office director Tony Wu at a press conference at Wisma MATTA.

Wu attributed the 19.2% increase to Taiwan’s efforts to attract Muslim visitors from Malaysia

“Taiwan has made a big effort to improve the travel environment for Muslim visitors,” he said.

Taiwan was ranked the seventh most popular non-OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) country among Muslim tourists worldwide in the Mastercard-Crescentrating Muslim Global Travel Index 2017.

Wu added that Muslim visitors can now download the Halal.Taiwan app to find halal eateries easily in the country.

He encouraged Malaysians to catch the blooming season of the cherry blossoms in Taiwan between February and late March.

“You don’t have to go to Japan for the cherry blossoms. We have it too in Taiwan,” said Wu.

Taiwan is being promoted as Asia’s Favourite Destination for the second time at the upcoming MATTA Fair at Putra World Trade Centre from Sept 8-10.

Visitors will get to enjoy performances from the World Championship gold medallist Taiwan Cheerleading Team, witness the making of delicate cotton candy, and sample Taiwanese food such as Sanxing scallion cakes, red bean and milk shaved ice, and tea eggs at the fair, said MATTA executive council member Rocky Kho.

Also present at the press conference was MATTA chief executive officer Phua Tai Neng.