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The 2019 Taiwan International Orchid Show (TIOS) was held at the Taiwan Orchid Plantation in Tainan’s Houbi District during March 2–11. This year’s theme was Orchid Land, Reading Tainan; a broad range of orchids were set up in the exhibition hall to represent 400 years of Tainan history. The Tainan City Government held a press conference at the plantation, where mayor Wei-Che Huang was in attendance. He invited everyone to come and enjoy the orchids. The mayor said that TIOS is not simply an exhibition for looking at orchids, it also promotes local tourism and development of industries. The entire city government worked hard this year to make the exhibition even more exciting and diverse compared to previous years.

“Now in its 15th year,” Mayor Huang said, “TIOS has annually attracted more than 200,000 visitors, with last year’s numbers exceeding 210,000. Within three to five years, overseas orders reached NT$10.968 billion.”

The Taiwan International Orchid Show is one of the top three orchid shows in the world. To promote orchids internationally, the city government strives to be more creative with each exhibition. This year (2019), an Orchid Land Pavilion, Contest Pavilion, Orchid Creation Pavilion, Business Pavilion, and Orchid Bazaar were featured. Inside the Orchid Creation Pavilion, visitors also found a Orchid Food—Tainan Orchid Life Exhibition. Combined with the seaside scenic boulevard, outdoor orchid park, and other zones, the total exhibition space was 5,500 pings .

The Orchid Land Pavilion used Tainan’s historical changes during the last 400 years as background. Five attractions were created with a large number of orchids: Taijiang Inner Sea from Age of Discovery, Fort Zeelandia under Dutch and Ming rule, Traditional Celebrations under Qing rule, Sugar Economy under Japanese rule, and Cultural Creation in the modern era. Visitors meandered through different times and spaces to see stories from the ancient city of Tainan.

Other pavilions also showcased diverse and rich orchid conceptions. The Contest Hall presented 1,200 orchid entries; 200 domestic and overseas judges selected the best orchid display with a prize of up to one million dollars. The Orchid Food—Tainan Orchid Life Exhibition, planned by the Department of Cultural Affairs, demonstrated the aesthetics of Fucheng cuisine street stalls, reinterpreting Fucheng’s living charm. The Orchid Creation Pavilion was planned by the Department of Economic Development with the concept of Sky of Blossoming Orchids Under Orchid Creation. Here, 40 businesses displayed more than 500 orchid-related products such as artwork, biotech, and health, as well as a cultural creations.

To make traveling to 2019 TIOS easy for everyone, and provide interesting travel schedules to Tainan, the city government offered ticket and tourism discounts which included purchasing tickets through mobile apps, EasyCards, iPASS, Samsung Pay, and Apple Pay. The Tainan Tourism Bureau develped a number of marketing strategies and travel packages to provide visitors with the most convenient transportation services, the most diverse travel packages, and the best product discounts to increase tourism benefits for the orchid exhibition. To receive discounts, one only needed to show their exhibition ticket at participating locations that included tourism factories, scenic areas, leisure farms, museums, and food souvenir shops. A total of 69 businesses participated.

During the initial press conference, certification marks for commercial orchid varieties were also announced. In January 2018, the Taiwan Orchid Varieties Commercial Center (TOVCC) was established by the city government inside the Orchid Plantation to provide assistance with orchid variety preservation, trial planting, exhibition, marketing, intellectual property planning, infringement processing, information, and other services. The certification marks announced will be used by buyers and producers as an orchid quality standard. Orchid businesses can send in their applications next year (2020) at the earliest. The certification mark will standardize the quality of Taiwan’s export orchids, gaining the trust of foreign buyers and safeguarding the quality of the island’s orchids.