Taiwan on Friday, Dec. 20, opened its tourism center in Manila in an aim to encourage more Filipinos to travel to the island.
Wallace Chow, representative of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in the Philippines, said the opening of Taiwan Tourism Information Center (TTIC) in Makati City will help the island introduce to Filipinos its "most beautiful places and most delicious foods."
"Through this center, I think, our Filipino friends will have a better understanding of Taiwan's culture and gastronomy. All of that can be found here," Chow said.
"So I think this is a very important milestone for our tourism between our countries," he added.
Chow said he is expecting more Filipinos to travel to Taiwan based on the increase the island already saw from Filipino tourists.
"As you may have already noticed last year, we have more than 350,000 Filipino friends visiting Taiwan. And as of the end of October this year, we already have 370,000 Filipino friends," he said.
"So it's a more than 35 percent increase compared with the same period last year. I would expect very soon, we will have more than 500,000 Filipinos to visit Taiwan in the future," he added.
And as the visa-free policy for Filipinos entering Taiwan is about to end next year, Chow said they may have to look at the possibilty of extending it.