Taiwan’s Tourism Bureau has announced the launching of a program to spotlight tourism attractions in Taiwan’s eastern area called “Shining the International Spotlight on the Eastern Area”.

The “Shining the International Spotlight on the Eastern Area” is designed to promote tourism, one of the six major emerging industries targeted by the Executive Yuan for priority development. The tourism development plan is known as the “Project Vanguard for Excellence in Tourism.” This plan divides Taiwan into five areas: the northern, central, southern, eastern and other areas. Through an open selection process, each area will choose a plan to focus international attention on the area’s tourist attractions. This plan is to encourage each area to maximize utilization of the uniqueness of their local area and come up with scenic sites that are internationally competitive, so as to help promote further development of tourism in Taiwan.

Under the program’s first document, administered by the Lovely Taiwan Foundation, the list of areas to spotlight are: “Taitung Spotlight”, “Chishang Spotlight”, “Harbor Spotlight” and “Hualian Spotlight”. Each category will introduce a plan for recreation and amusement tourism. For instance, the “Taitung Spotlight” plan will include an indigenous people’s evening music festival in Tiehua Village. The “Slow Market” workshop will promote its unique arts and crafts. “Chishang Spotlight” will promote “Rice Culture” as its theme activity. Altogether, they will organize a campaign that combines these different elements to promote tourism in the Hualien-Taitung area. This whole plan will encourage international tourists to enjoy a leisurely tour of the scenic attractions and culture of the Hualien-Taitung area, especially the beautiful music of the area’s indigenous tribes and the unique arts and crafts of the people.