Arabian Travel Market New Frontiers Recovery Award 2016
recognises Taiwan for its efforts to repair, rebuild and recover after devastating
earthquake in February
Arabian
Travel Market (ATM), the region’s leading travel industry showcase, has named
Taiwan as the recipient of the New Frontiers Recovery Award 2016 at a special
presentation that was also broadcast on ARN radio on the final day of the
annual event.
“We wanted to recognise Taiwan not only for
its swift physical rebuilding, but for the way the country has maintained its
optimistic outlook with regards to maintaining and growing its tourism
industry, particularly when it comes to targeting travellers from the Middle
East region.” said Noblet-Segers
“We
are pleased to receive this award,” said Arthur Hsieh, Director, TTB Singapore
Branch, Taiwan Visitors Association. “We managed to recover swiftly from the
earthquake as our infrastructure is so strong. The rebuilding has now been
completed and we want people in the Middle East to know that Taiwan is renowned
for its national parks and scenic areas full of flowers, fruit and greenery.
You can see the mountains and the beach in one day and travel from north to
south in just 90 minutes thanks to the 300kmph bullet train.”
The
island nation, which has long been a popular tourism destination, was hit by a
6.4-magnitude earthquake in February 2016 causing the worst death toll in the
country’s history since 1999. In the aftermath of the earthquake, Taiwan’s
government was swift to react, allocating US$1 billion in aid to address
building safety and agricultural land soil concern. Around 2,000 schools have since
been retrofitted for quake safety.
Taiwan
was shortlisted along with Nepal and the Philippines, which also experienced
natural catastrophes that caused significant human and economic losses in the
last 12 months. Nepal suffered a 7.8-magnitude
earthquake in April 2015 that flattened large parts of the capital Kathmandu
and caused devastation across the entire nation. Philippines was hit by a
typhoon in October 2015 displacing half a million people and directly
affecting over 1.24 million Filipinos.
Now
in its 12th year, the New Frontiers Recovery Award was created in
2005 to recognise outstanding contributions to tourism development in the face
of overwhelming adversity, supporting the chosen destination by donating exhibition
space at the event to the value of US$10,000.
Previous
award recipients include Nepal, Phuket, Thailand; Cancun, Mexico; Sichuan,
China; Baluchistan, Pakistan; Central Visayas, Philippines; and Northern India.
For
more information on The New Frontiers Recovery Award, please go to www.arabiantravelmarket.com
Photo
caption: Jean
Chang, President of Golden Foundation Service Group accepting the award from Nadege
Noblet-Segers on behalf of Arthur Hsieh, Director, TTB Singapore Branch, Taiwan
Visitors Association with ARN presenters from The Ticket Mark Lloyd and Stef
Burgon