Introduction
Regular watchers of international news will be aware that China have recently revoked the rights of individuals to travel to Taiwan for leisure. Business travel and tour groups are not affected by the ban as of right now. The ban—announced on July 31, 2019 and going into effect the next day— caught many by surprise, even in the tourism industry in both China and Taiwan.
China’s ban on leisure travel is just the latest in a series of political maneuvers between the two territories, as they continue to disagree over a range of important issues. The ban is expected to prevent up to 700,000 Chinese travelers from going to Taiwan, resulting in potentially US$950 million in lost tourism revenue.
The Glocalization Organization of Asia Pacific (GoAP) was originally planning to host its annual conference in Taipei, Taiwan on December 5-6, 2019. With this ban, we feel that it is necessary to change venue.
Even though the restrictions imposed do not affect business travelers, the consequences will still be felt heavily in the business world. The shifting political and business landscapes in Asia underscores the importance of why an organization like GoAP needs to exist. It’s also why we’ve decided to change the location to Seoul, Korea: in order to make it a reality.
Today’s Geo-Commercial Environment
With so many emerging economies spread out across Asia, it’s the perfect time for concepts like globalization, collaboration, and localization to come to the fore. In the next several years, these disparate economical interests are going to continue to grow, which is why it’s going to be important to have a platform in place through which different countries can work together.
What the Asia-Pacific region needs is a means of uniting companies and industries who are focused on globalization, in an effort to inspire greater large-scale collaboration across the region as a whole. We need a forum where ideas could be exchanged, businesses could be pitched, and relationships could be built.
Where Does GoAP Come In?
GoAP is an initiative that accomplishes exactly that. By focusing on the globalization efforts of businesses and localization industries throughout Asia, Oceania, and the Asia-Pacific region, we are creating a centralized hub where companies from different nations can come together and discuss relevant issues in an environment that is conducive to conversation.
Our 2019 Annual Conference was scheduled to take place in Taipei, Taiwan, but the recent Chinese travel ban has complicated matters. Rather than simply accept that circumstances were out of our control and call the whole thing off, though, we’ve decided that we need exactly this kind of forum now more than ever. We can’t host it in Taipei because many participants wouldn’t be able to take part, and creating a level discussion field throughout Asia is a large part of the GoAP’s raison d’etre. Bringing together the globalization voices in Asia Pacific and developing a common platform for localization—both metaphorically and literally—is more critical than ever.
How We Solved the Problem
To our relief, we’ve managed to come up with a solution to the issue, which means that we’ll still be able to contribute to a concerted, international effort towards localization and globalization in the manner we had originally intended. The location of the conference has been moved from Taipei to Seoul, South Korea, and will take place between December 5th and 6th of 2019 at the Grand InterContinental.
The entire point of globalization in the business sphere is to come together and work on issues, as well as developing new avenues for potential collaboration in the future. With some major players in the corporate and political world resisting globalization measures, there’s a real need for organizations like GoAP. GoAP will bring together buyers of language and translation services, translation companies, language companies, international marketers, and technology players to drive globalization and localization forward in Asia Pacific.
Today’s geo-commercial landscape is complicated, and comes with its own peaks and valleys, but we’ll fight for globalization for as long as it takes. Join us in Seoul on the 5th and 6th of December and have your say in how this industry should be shaped in the coming years.