KUCHING: Taiwan has many remarkable attractions to offer tourists, and in recent years, it has been making improvements in order to entice more Muslim visitors.
Director of the Taiwan Tourism Bureau (Kuala Lumpur office) Abe Chou proudly showcased “Salam Taiwan” as the bureau’s slogan at a Taiwan Tourism Workshop held at Hilton Kuching yesterday.
The aim of the workshop was to promote tourism in Taiwan, focusing on their Muslim-friendly environment.
With a large variety of tourist sites as well as an abundance of unique delicacies to sample, Taiwan is a very popular travel destination. However, the shortage of Muslim-friendly facilities and food has made it difficult for Muslims to travel there.
According to Chou, among all the Malaysian visitors to Taiwan last year, only about 15 per cent were Muslims.
Therefore, the Taiwan Tourism Bureau and the Chinese Muslim Association have made a joint effort to rectify this.
According to Zaharah, an assistant at the Chinese Muslim Association, it was previously very difficult to find halal food and prayer amenities in Taiwan before.
“We do not have a lot of local Muslims in Taiwan, only about 50,000 to 60,000. We also have about 600,000 foreign workers from Muslim countries,” she cited in an exclusive interview with New Sarawak Tribune.
In her presentation, Zaharah shared that there were now six mosques in Taiwan, and one more was being constructed at the moment.
Furthermore, she detailed their careful implementation of halal concepts with separation of utensils, cookware and food storage.
“In order to encourage more Muslims to visit Taiwan, we have engaged the relevant industries such as restaurants and hotels to obtain halal certification in recent years,” said Chou.
“We have managed to get over 220 restaurants and accommodations to achieve halal certification,” he stated.
“Now, we also have prayer rooms at many key locations such as at tourist centres and main railroad stations,” he added.
