Plenty of online info on Taiwan, but lots of room for improvement

This article was written by Steven Crook and published by the Taiwan Journal on October 28, 2005. It reports that the government in Taiwan has set a target of increasing the number of foreign tourists visiting Taiwan to 5 million per year by 2008. A considerable amount of government budget is devoted to building up Taiwan's numerous tourism-oriented web sites.

Currently, every one of Taiwan's 12 national scenic areas and six national parks has a multilingual web site, using languages such as Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean and simplified Chinese. All but two of Taiwan's 25 counties have web sites that feature some English-language travel informaiton.

However, these web sites vary dramatically in terms of their usefulness. Indeed, many of these sites are well-designed and providing a great variety of helpful information, such as how to find places in different counties, informaiton about festivals and trade shows, and the history and background of temples and other historical sites. A good example is the Tourism Bureau's main web site, www.tbroc.gov.tw.

But even resourceful web sites such as the Tourism Bureau site can be improved. For instance, various travel books currently on the market can be mentioned, such as Lonely Planet's Taiwan guidebook. More photographs and maps can also be added. More significantly, materials used in other web sites that feature Taiwan-related travel information can be referred to, so that international visitors can get the most up-to-date and first-hand data about traveling to and around Taiwan.

Tourism-oriented web sites in Taiwan can be further improved by providing detailed and correct informaiton, including contact information that is useful to international tourists who do not speak or read Chinese. These web sites need to provide data that are helpful for both newly-arrived foreigners and those who have had some experience of exploring various parts of Taiwan. Issues such as the history of a scenic spot, a township or a village, the many choices of accommodation, where to find artists and art galleries and, perhaps most importantly, good and accurate maps, can all be included.

This article quotes several experienced travel writers on their opinions about the strengths and weakness of Taiwan's tourism-oriented web sites. It also examines several of these sites and provides details on where the best travel information can be found. All who are interested in traveling to and around Taiwan should check out this important article.