Director of Tourism and Travel Bureau, Taichung City Government, Shen-shan Chen, has led near 50 members from the hotel, restaurant and cultural creativity business to Japan for Flora Expo promotion. Today(31st), they were holding a press conference at Chubu Centrair International Airport, Nagoya, Japan, to introduce the「Taichung Exhibition Hall• Special exhibition of Taichung tourism and cuisine」. Takahashi Marima, Japanese artist, was invited to share his travel experience of visiting Taichung and how he enjoyed the cuisine in Taichung. There were a lot of positive feedbacks collected from the audience. Director Chen said, the World Flora Expo will be held in Taichung by the end of this year so the direct charter flight of Flora Expo is highly expected to welcome the Japanese tourists to visit Taichung through a convenient way.

This year is a tourism year of Flora Expo, the City Government has organized the team to conduct the exhibition in Nagoya, Japan with the collaboration of Chubu Centrair International Airport. At the event square of Chubu Centrair International Airport, such a big airport with the people traffic of more than 20 thousand of tourists during a single day, the team conducted the Roadshow to promote the delicious foods, good stuffs and great lives in Taichung and the upcoming World Flora Expo in Taichung. Thousands of Japanese and international tourists were attracted to join in the popular event. Tomozoe Masanao, the managing director of Chubu Centrair International Airport, Chief of Taichung International Airport, Rui-shu Chang, and the General Manager of China Airlines, Nagoya division, Shi-hwa Liu attended the event and Director Chen has passed the invitation card from Mayor Chia-lung Lin to invite the Governor of Aichi Ken, Hideaki Ōmura to participate in the opening ceremony of World Flora Expo in Taichung.

There were some free food samples provided, like Ah-Tsing-Shih taro cake, Go nature pineapple cake and pearl milk tea etc. on site during the event. And the tourists can experience DIY in person for the chopsticks producing with Carpenter and the hank-shaking pearl milk tea with Chun Shui Tang etc. All the tourists love these very much.

Director Chen said, Taichung International Airport has become the first sister airport of Nagoya in Asia witnessed by Mayor Chia-lung Lin one year ago. The direct charter flight between these two cities has upgraded to become the regular chartered flights to meet the needs of 2018 World Flora Expo. City Government will aggressively facilitate Mandarin Airlines to collaborate with these two airports to develop the Flora Expo direct charter flights so the Japanese in Chubu area can come to join in the Flora Expo by the direct flights.

The managing director of Chubu Centrair International Airport, Tomozoe Masanao said, these two airports are both geographically located at the central positions of Taiwan and Japan, respectively; Taichung International Airport is the first sister airport of Nagoya, following the formal treaty of friendship signed by two cities last year. There is a tourism promotional exhibition area of Taichung in the airport and the event this time is highly valued with full supports based on the friendship between the cities.

The officer of Tourism and Travel Bureau indicated, Nagoya Broadcasting Network and the Japanese travel agencies have collaborated to shoot the promotional film of tourism in Taichung. Japanese tourists were invited to travel around 7 Cities and Counties in central Taiwan through the traveling experiences in depth during the Flora Expo period. We expect there would be more than 3 million of international tourists staying in Taichung during the Flora Expo season.

The officer of Tourism and Travel Bureau said, in 2016, 7 counties and cities including Taichung, Changhua, Miaoli, Nantou, Yunlin, Chiayi City and Chiayi County etc. has formed the central Taiwan tourism facilitating committee to sign the「Treaty of friendship memo of tourism」with Shoryudo of central Japan. By 2017, Taichung International Airport and Nagoya Chubu Centrair International Airport of Japan become the sister airport of each other. Through the integration of the regional alliances and resources, the prefectures of central Japan, like Aichi Ken , Nagoya City, Nagano Ken , Gifu Ken , Shiga Ken , Mie Ken etc. have many cultural exchanges in Flora Expo themes including cycling, hot spring and dance parade and festival since more than two years ago.