hypermegaglobal.net

From taiwanbesttrip.net:

To make Taiwan's rich tourism resources and culture known globally, the Taiwan Tourism Bureau has launched a special program as part of its 2008-2009 Tour Taiwan Years campaign. Experienced travelers worldwide are invited to submit money-saving yet creative itineraries for a trip in Taiwan, share their personal stories from the tour in audio/visual blog posts, and let people around the world see this island nation through their eyes.

The rules

50 teams of "Taiwan explorers" are going to be selected to travel in Taiwan for up to 4 days between July 11 and August 31. Each evening, they'll have to upload a video and an "explanation" onto the official website. On day 5, they'll have to show up at a location designated by the bureau and "once confirmed that the required four videos along with four 200-word explanations have been uploaded, the team will be given NT$ 28,000" (~616€) plus a chance to win a "4 days/ 3 night flight + hotel package" for 2 persons.

After leaving Taiwan, writing an 800-word travelogue and producing another video they'll be eligible to enter stage two of the contest. Again, the winning team is going to be selected by a committee and will receive NT$ 1.000.000 minus taxes to spend one month in Taiwan during which it "will be required to visit designated" locations and "upload, on a weekly basis, its most interesting discoveries or episodes in Taiwan in the form of audio-visual blog posts (including a 250-word description) onto the official website".

In stage one, you'd pay to work

If you still think this sounds like "the best trip in the world", please be aware that "the entrants must pay their own airfares". For a team of 2 persons (the minimum size), you can expect to pay roughly the following amount to fly to Taiwan in mid-July (round trip, rates are from opodo):

From Toronto:     NT$ 93.371
From Paris:       NT$ 88.600
From Frankfurt:   NT$ 86.360
From Sidney:      NT$ 64.230
From Los Angeles: NT$ 54.732
From New York:    NT$ 51.550
From Shanghai:    NT$ 39.600 (can this be correct?)
From Tokyo:       NT$ 25.000
From Bangkok:     NT$ 15.774

Compare this to the NT$ 28,000 you'd get, per team, after traveling for four days, and only if the daily videos and reports have been uploaded. If you're bored in Bangkok, stay away from the closet and enter the contest instead. You might be able to make a profit. For everyone else, it looks like a bad deal unless you wanted to fly to Taiwan between July 11 and August 31 anyway.

Don't get me wrong. I really like Taiwan. I've blogged about it before (without being paid). I also think that Taiwan is extremely hard to beat in terms of value for money, you can have a great time there without spending a fortune. I was excited when I first heard a preannouncement of this this contest and had several interesting and funny concepts in mind.

Instead I've now spend an hour writing this completely unfunny post because, in it's current form, the contest is a huge disappointment. It does not deserve to mentioned anywhere without pointing out the fact that the Taiwan Tourism Bureau essentially wants 50 teams to pay for the privilege of promoting Taiwan.

This does not remind me of the generosity I've frequently experienced in Taiwan. It rather reminds me of shrewd businessmen I had to deal with and of stories about stingy Taiwanese bosses. Taiwan deserves a better contest.