May 23 Taipei International Travel Expo: Free Flights, Free Kids’ Trips & More

▲ The Taipei International Travel Expo opens, with vendors offering their lowest discounts to attract visitors.

Reported and photographed by Hsiao Wan-ning / Taipei

From May 23 to May 26, the Taipei International Travel Expo will be held at Hall 1 of the Taipei World Trade Center. Already, many exhibitors have rolled out major promotions to attract summer travelers, such asFive Star Tourism Group offering free trips for children to Kansai and Kyushu in Japan, Canxing Travel providing free entry for kids to the Malaysia-Singapore double park and half-price deals for Korea theme parks, targeting family travelers. This year’s travel fair is said to be the largest ever, with around 600 exhibitors participating, and attendees also have the chance to win a free flight to Finland to see the Northern Lights.

Chen Mei-hua, associate marketing director of Canxing Travel, said that demand for Japan and South Korea remains strong this year, with 30–40% of packages already sold. South Korea’s sales have more than doubled due to the popularity of the Korean drama “My Love from the Star.” Li Tzu-jung, deputy manager of marketing planning at Five Star Travel, noted that cruise travel is extremely popular this year, with about 30–40% of itineraries already sold. Meanwhile, the product marketing manager at ezfly explained that although Southeast Asia has faced some challenges this year, the impact has mainly been on group tours, with little effect seen on independent travel.

▲ Cruise travel is extremely popular this year. (Photo / Reporter Hsu Wen-bin)

Chen Mei-hua also mentioned that as the Southeast Asian travel market matures,tour packages at this year’s expo are generally more affordable than last year’s.For example, last year the Malaysia-Singapore double park package was priced at NT$27,999 (excluding tax) at the expo, but this year it’s only NT$24,999 (excluding tax)—a full NT$3,000 less. In addition to heavily promoting family travel, travel agencies are also offering many independent travel deals, such as a Hong Kong 3-day independent trip for under NT$5,000 (excluding tax), a Korea 6-day trip for under NT$6,000 (excluding tax), a Bangkok 5-day independent trip for under NT$8,000 (excluding tax), round-trip flights to Osaka, Tokyo, and Nagoya for NT$6,666 (excluding tax), and a “Qiangjian” (a specific destination) independent trip for NT$10,900 (excluding tax), among other highly competitive offers.