The second World Indigenous Tourism Summit (WITS) was officially launched in Perth, Western Australia from March 13th to 16th, 2023. Council of Indigenous Peoples(CIP) of Taiwan, which successfully bid for the next hosting rights, also participated in the event. In order to promote Taiwan’s indigenous tribal tourism, Minister Icyang Parod led a delegation to Australia and held two tourism matchmaking meetings during the summit to explore cross-border business opportunities and promote Taiwan’s indigenous tourism to the international stage.
The theme of this summit was centered on tribal tourism, emphasizing that the world’s indigenous peoples must work together towards self-awareness, respect, and cooperation in order to sustainably promote tourism. In order to promote tribal tourism and Taiwan’s tourism industry, CIP held tourism matchmaking meetings in Sydney and Perth on March 10th and 15th, respectively. On March 15th, Robert Taylor, Executive Director of the Western Australian Indigenous Tourism Operators Council, Zhang Jiapu, President of the Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce in Western Australia, Chen Tingyu, Team leader of the Taiwan Visitors Association, and other representatives from 40 Taiwanese and Australian travel agencies were invited to attend the meeting for exchanges.
CIP also brought 10 high-quality tribal tour itineraries to the event to showcase the rich beauty of Taiwan’s unique features, such as seasonal ceremonies, mountainous ancient roads, ocean knowledge, railway attractions, and outdoor camping.
CIP stated that the purpose of tourism is not only for sightseeing, but also for communication and understanding. They hope that the summit and tourism matchmaking meetings will serve as opportunities to let the world know about Taiwan’s rich tourist attractions and cultural diversity, and to establish international communication and cooperation, in order to make the world see the cultural charm of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples.
