To promote bicycle tourism in Taiwan, the Tourism Bureau, MOTC, working with its overseas branches, as well as the Taiwanese bicycle maker Giant and two Taiwanese airlines, in March 2013 held the year-long “Bike2Taiwan” online activity. We are inviting domestic and overseas cyclists to participate.
The program will not only involve providing innovative bike routes and island-wide information on bike paths, it will also offer bike rental and bike purchase discounts, a platform for cyclists to communicate, gifts and lottery prizes. Starting in April 2013, China Airlines and Eva Air will offer 15 kilograms of additional free baggage transport for overseas tourists who buy a bicycle in Taiwan and want to transport it back home. We welcome cyclists around the world to not only come to Taiwan to ride bicyles but also enjoy discounts on the purchase of a bicycle and complementary baggage transport.
Since being launched in March, and with the promotion by the Bureau’s overseas publicity websites, fans clubs, and official blogs, bike club networks, EMBA alliance electronic newsletters and other channels, as of April 8, some 23 itineraries have been planned, as well as 13 visited.
In addition, 14 travel diaries about traveling in Taiwan have been posted online, including regarding trips to Guanyin Mountain, Shuangxi mountain, the old Caoling tunnel, Kaohsiung’s pier, Anping, as well as Taipei, Fulong, Yilan and Toucheng.
To increase the number of overseas participants, the Bureau has stepped up overseas marketing and sales and cooperation with overseas travel agencies. We’ve also spread the word through the two Taiwanese airlines’ websites, members newsletters, fan clubs and e-commerce channels. By combining publicity with sales, we hope to encourage more tourists to visit. Giant’s overseas bike shops will also put up posters about the activity soon, as we head into the second phase of publicity and marketing.
We hope cycling groups can join this activity and spread the word online among cylists around the world. We hope to attract bike clubs’ members to come here and enjoy great experience of seeing Taiwan on two wheels. It’s Time for Taiwan. For more information on the program: please visit: http://www.bike2taiwan.net/en
