Department of Information and Tourism, Taipei City Government

End-of-year is the trip season for Japanese high schools and colleges’ school trip. According to the monthly report of tourism from Tourism Bureau, M.O.T.C., the number of foreign tourists coming to Taiwan has been increasing yearly. On January to September, 2015, the number of foreign tourists has increased 4.11% from the same period of 2014. There were approximately 7,550,445 foreign tourists coming to Taiwan, which was 298,292 more than same period in 2014. The statistics shows a good trend for Taiwan’s tourism market. However, due to devaluation of Japanese yen, the number of Japanese tourists coming to Taipei has decreased this year. To continuously attract Japanese tourists coming to Taiwan, Department of Information and Tourism, Taipei City Government has been working hard on overseas marketing; hence to improve Taipei international visibility and popularity.
Department of Information and Tourism, Taipei City Government cooperated with famous Japanese writer Yoshifumi Katakura and famous Japanese visual image artist Takora, targeting Japanese school trip market and published School Trip Handbook. It was introduced during the welcome event of Osaka Prefectural Sano senior high school’s visit to Heping high school, which was the first stop of their school trip in Taiwan. In this handbook, daily language is taught with cute image design. During the welcome event, each student was interested in it and started to learned some of them such as “nice to meet you”, “sorry” in Chinese. Especially languages related to languages such as “date”, “crush”, “love at first sight” have been asked most frequently.
There were 280 students from Osaka Prefectural Sano senior high school came to Taiwan for this school trip. Taipei Heping high school had selected 250 10th grade and 11th grade students attended this welcome event. Commissioner of Department of Information and Tourism Yu-yen CHIEN (簡余晏) presents, for students coming to Taiwan for school trip to know Taipei in depth, the department published the School Trip Handbook targeting school trip market. Famous Japanese writer Yoshifumi Katakura, who has published more than 35 Taiwan travel guides and books, was invited to write this handbook. In addition, famous Japanese visual image artist Takora was invited to take charge of this handbook’s design. This handbook’s colorful design along with some interesting conversation topics, make this handbook different than regular travel guide.
According to Yu-yen CHIEN, School Trip Handbook does not only introduce Taipei’s scenic spots, but also introduces famous delicacies such as bubble tea (珍珠奶茶), douhua with grass jelly(仙草豆花), black pepper pie (胡椒餅), beef noodle (牛肉麵), xiaolongbao (小籠包). Tourists can use Taipei’s convenient transportations like MRT, YouBike to travel from Ximending (西門町) to East District. Besides encouraging Japanese students interact and make friends with Taiwanese, she also taught Japanese students basic Chinese with five cute mascots. Students were enthusiastic and followed the instructions one after another.
In the book launch party of School Trip Handbook, Yoshifumi Katakura said that this book does not only express Taipei’s loveliness, but also makes Japanese students easier to communicate with Taiwanese students. He appreciated that Taiwanese has welcomed Japanese tourists with hospitality and wished Taiwan and Japan would build a closer relationship. After been asked about design idea, Takora said that, Taipei is a city that both tourists who love traditional culture and tourists love modern culture can enjoy. This handbook is designed to be readable both from left and right side, representing that in Taipei there is always new experience. Main visual image is designed based on the “Tai(臺)” character from “Taipei”. On color design, the primary color green represents Taipei’s nature; accent colors red and dark blue represent the colors on Taiwan’s national flag; In addition, yellow represents friendliness, brown represents focus on tradition, and golden represents the meaning of welcome.
Taipei city has many advantages for tourists such as safe environment, diverse foods, convenient transportations, friendly residents and 90 days visa-free period. Furthermore, there are many Japanese style architectures such as Beitou Hot Spring Museum and Plum Garden in Beitou and National Taiwan Museum in 228 Peace Memorial Park. Japanese students will feel the kindness and friendliness of Taipei when walking on Taipei’s streets. Department of Information and Tourism wishes Taiwanese and Japanese students can experience different cultures and lifestyles through school trips; hence to promote Taiwan and Japan’s relationship.