Taiwan's Tourism Director Attends APEC Ministerial Meeting, Shares Insights on Smart and Inclusive Tourism

(CNA, Reporter Yu Hsiao-han, Taipei, June 29) Chen Yu-hsiu, Director-General of the Tourism Administration, represented Taiwan at the 13th APEC Tourism Ministerial Meeting. During the meeting, Chen Yu-hsiu introduced Taiwan's current policy of promoting "smart and inclusive tourism" to the international community, citing the automated border control system (e-gate) as an example and expressing hope for joint efforts to enhance digital services.

The theme for the 2026 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is "Building an Asia-Pacific Community to Prosper Together." It sets three core priority areas: "Openness," "Innovation," and "Cooperation," and aims to strengthen industrial and supply chain resilience through discussions at various high-level meetings throughout the year.

The 13th APEC Tourism Ministerial Meeting was held in Macao on June 27th. This was the first APEC ministerial-level meeting for the Ministry of Transportation and Communications this year. Representatives from all 21 member economies attended, with Taiwan represented by Chen Yu-hsiu, Director-General of the Tourism Administration.

The Tourism Administration of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications issued a press release today stating that ministers from various economies engaged in in-depth discussions on several core tourism issues, including how to drive tourism transformation through digital and smart technologies, thereby making substantial contributions to the economic and social progress of the Asia-Pacific region.

Chen Yu-hsiu explained that Taiwan's policy of promoting "smart and inclusive tourism" is highly aligned with APEC's initiative to "Enhance the Effectiveness of APEC's Tourism Facilitation Measures." Using Taiwan's automated border control system (e-gate) and expanded paperless immigration as examples, she expressed hope that all economies would jointly strengthen the promotion of digital services to enhance the travel experience for tourists within the APEC region.

Chen Yu-hsiu shared at the meeting benchmark projects that utilize digital and smart technologies to drive regional tourism economic development, including recent achievements such as the integrated tourism data management platform, multilingual real-time translation, AI customer service assistant, and people and vehicle flow management system.

Chen Yu-hsiu also explained to the economies Taiwan's efforts to improve cross-border payment services for travelers, in collaboration with economies such as Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, using the case of the Tourism Administration's cooperation with financial management authorities on cross-border electronic payments.

The Tourism Administration stated that during her trip, Chen Yu-hsiu held 10 meetings on the sidelines of the conference, personally introducing Taiwan's outdoor activities such as cycling and hiking to ministerial representatives from different economies, and sincerely welcoming representatives from all economies to visit Taiwan and participate in the Taiwan Lantern Festival. (Editor: Chen Jen-hua) 1150629

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