Taiwan opened its first tourism information centre (TTIC) in the Philippines, providing Filipinos up-to-date and easy-to-access travel advice and information about the island.

Located at 100 West Makati, the new TTIC will be managed by the Taiwan Tourism Administration’s (TTA) Bangkok office.

Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) Wallace Minn-Gan Chow said of the new centre: “With this establishment, we have a real centre which can become a platform introducing Filipino friends to develop their own tourism program in Taiwan. Through this center, I think our Filipino friends will have a better understanding of Taiwan’s culture and gastronomy.”

Chow added that the opening of the TTIC marks a very important milestone for Taiwan and the Philippines, especially as Taipei regards the latter as one of its most important markets in Southeast Asia.

Boosting numbers 

In the first 10 months of the year, the number of Filipinos travelling to Taiwan reached 370,000, surpassing the 350,000 arrivals for the whole of 2023.

Chow said: “This centre is going to be a big boost. I would expect very soon we will have more than 500,000 Filipinos visiting Taiwan in the future.”

The TECO representative likewise expressed optimism that the upward trajectory in the number of Filipinos visiting the island would be taken into consideration for this policy’s future extension.

“We have to do the overall assessment, but I’m pretty optimistic, because with the increase in tourist numbers from the Philippines to Taiwan, the Philippines has become the biggest source of international visitors from Southeast Asian countries,” he told reporters.

Creating new opportunities

TTA Bangkok Office Director for the Philippines Cindy Chen said Taiwan is open to partnering with local tourism stakeholders as well as creating special offers for Filipinos traveling to Taiwan for leisure.

She said: “Now that we have opened the TTIC, we will use it as a hub and have more interaction with local travel partners. We will work together with them to organize, for example, agent trips to Taiwan to help them understand our country’s tourism better.”