Taiwan Tourism Bureau’s “The Best Trip in the World” Contest: Travelers Discover Taiwan Through Creative 4-Day Trips Documentaries

“The Best Trip in the World” contest is the most popular program organized by the Taiwan Tourism Bureau this summer. Travelers from 18 countries were selected from 1,123 teams in 44 countries. They completed their task by the end of August. All of the teams put together interesting videos of their 4-day trip in Taiwan, which were uploaded onto the official contest website for public viewing and voting.

The online voting process will end on Oct. 31, 2009 at 23:59:59 Taiwan time (GTM +8). All teams hope to gain the most votes from blog readers and to have the largest number of Internet links in order to earn the 15% of total points within the judging criteria. Please log on to the contest website, vote for your favorite team, and win a prize from our lucky draw.

All teams are attempting to get support from Internet users across the world as they hope to win the final prize worth NT$1 million and come back to Taiwan again to travel for one month. The selected teams not only use their personal blogs, but also YouTube, and popular social network websites such as facebook and twitter, to share their travel documentaries with Internet users. Some also used college campuses to arrange seminars to share their travel experiences in Taiwan. Others have written articles that were sent to the local media, to try to get more support. Through these efforts, they not only help themselves to earn more votes, but also assist in Taiwan’s tourism promotion.

The winning teams of the “Most Popular Team” awards in the first stage of the competition came aggressively with great ambition. They not only produced the personal EDM, they also utilized local broadcasting, newspaper, TV channel, etc. to introduce their travel experience in Taiwan and try to appeal for people’s votes.

Taiwan Tourism Bureau created the platform for teams to share their travel videos and travelogues. Moreover, the Tourism Bureau cooperated with Google, facebook, friendster, myspace, tagged, hi 5, etc. to enhance the Internet promotion. Additionally, the news releases were given to the international media to share the teams’ achievements, and attract people to get involved in the contest and generate votes for all teams.

The voting period of the second stage is from October 1 to 31, 2009 at 23:59:59 Taiwan time (GTM +8). The Tourism Bureau will organize a committee to select the winning team at this stage. The team that wins this contest will be selected partly through online voting, which will be conducted from Oct. 1 to 30. Votes received online will be a judging criterion. Final selection of the winning team will be made by a committee organized by the Bureau and the winner will be announced on Nov. 15.

People in the teams got involved in this contest. Their routes spread across the island from north, central, south, east and the outlying islands. After touring Taiwan, they all happily indicated that they had a great time in Taiwan, and thought this trip was fun and memorable. The team “Senior Australians” composed by Arthur Gilks and Beth Gilks, happily celebrated their 52nd anniversary in Taiwan. Even though summer is the high season of the tour, and international plane tickets are more expensive, Arthur and Beth’s family members, two sons, two daughters-in-law, and a granddaughter, came with them on this trip. Although their original trip to Jade Mountain had to be altered due to Typhoon Morakot, they nevertheless enjoyed walking in the Lalashan Forest Reserve and Keelung Mountain. This senior Australian couple was impressed by Taiwanese people’s hospitality and friendliness. They found traveling in Taiwan to be very safe and welcoming. They said that they must visit Taiwan again and complete their goal of climbing Jade Mountain in the near future.

Another British and American team, Formosa Adventurers, loves Taiwan’s natural beauty and culture quite a lot. Through their travel steps, the Internet users can see the charm and attractiveness of Eastern Taiwan. Viewers of their video can see that they enjoyed outdoor activities, such as river trekking, white water rafting, and paragliding in Hualien, as well as learning about aboriginal culture by visiting the Bunun Tribal Culture Center in Taitung.

Moreover, another Canadian team, Above & Below, used Taiwan’s convenient transportation system, including tour buses, subway systems, and bullet trains, etc. to visit Kenting, Little Liuqiu Island, Kaohsiung and Taipei within four days. They recorded details of the attractions they saw, the costs of their trip and their thoughts. Internet viewers were grateful for their videos being shared on YouTube. These videos and travelogues provide the online users a concrete and great reference for their travel plan to Taiwan. Nigel Anderson of the team Above & Below said that he’s visited about 30 countries. He had great fun in this contest, and it has changed the way he looks at making travel videos. They had unforgettable experiences and memories in Taiwan, and they want to show Taiwan to the world.

Now, log on to http://www.TaiwanBestTrip.net to enjoy the interesting and creative videos. And then vote for your favorite team. By doing so, you might win a great prize!

Photos: http://www.cna.com.tw/postwrite/cvpread.aspx?ID=41446