TAIPEI: Taiwan should further improve its infrastructure to compete with neighboring destinations to attract more overseas tourists, business representatives said yesterday.

The sentiments were voiced at a seminar sponsored by the Travel and Tourism Committee under the European Chamber of Commerce Taipei (ECCT).

Josef Dolp, the ECCT's committee chairman and Sheraton Taipei Hotel general manager, said improved cross-Taiwan Straits ties will help not only to attract more tourists to Taiwan, but also to bring in more overseas capital.

Greater competitiveness is the key for Taiwan to attract more overseas visitors and investment, because the island is facing sharp competition from Hong Kong, Singapore and the mainland cities, he said.

In the hotel industry, MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) can help achieve sustainable growth and handsome profits, Dolp suggested. This approach can also help boost development in other sectors and generate marginal profits, he added.

Adrian Harley, Cathay Pacific Airways general manager, expressed a similar view, contending that Taiwan must upgrade the quality of its hardware to attract overseas tourists.

Transportation and Communications chief Mao Chi-kuo said the government is aiming to create sustainable tourism revolving around a clean environment, safe facilities and hospitality.

Stanley Yen, president of the Landis Group and the most representative figure of the Taiwan hotel business, stressed that the government's determination to develop tourism will undoubtedly result in the island becoming more attractive to overseas people.

This is unimaginable progress, as the government sector had long turned a blind eye to the importance of exploring Taiwan's tourism potential, he said.

In early April, the Executive Yuan approved an ambitious tourism expansion project aiming to establish Taiwan as a tourism hub in East Asia. The government set a target of NT$550 billion ($16.8 billion) in tourism revenue by 2012.

The planned budget for the project is NT$30 billion over the next four years. It is estimated that the plan will help create 400,000 jobs by 2012.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 05/28/2009 page2)