Taipei outlines Muslim tourism plans for 2022

Thursday, December 16, 2021

Taipei is keen to promote itself as a Muslim-friendly city. When international tourism resumes, this would help it to welcome Muslim visitors, Taipei Deputy Mayor Tsai Ping-kun (蔡炳坤) told a news conference yesterday.

“Once our borders open for tourists, we need to have sufficient facilities for Muslim tourists,” Tsai said. “Even though we do not have many Muslim friends here at the moment, we are committed to building a foundation.”

If this initiation stops just due to pandemic, Taipei would not be ready when its borders reopen for tourism, he explained and also added that he understands the pandemic has affected the tourism industry heavily.

He said that in spite of the dearth of tourists, efforts have not gone to waste. Taiwan for Muslim travellers, in 2021 ranked itself as the second most attractive nation among those that are not Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) destinations as listed by the Global Muslim Travel Index, Tsai said.

In July, the index was released and it showed Taiwan and the UK tied for second among the top non-OIC destinations for Muslims, with a score of 57, trailing Singapore’s 69.

“We want to compete with Singapore for the No. 1 spot, especially as almost every visitor to Taiwan visits the capital,” Tsai said.

For the past three years, Taipei has been working with the Chinese Muslim Association on the accreditation of Muslim-friendly places or tourist sites, he said.

“Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) hopes to make Taipei the world’s most Muslim-friendly tourist spot, and we are approaching that goal step by step,” Tsai said.

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