Yeoh Siew Hoon makes a quick visit to Taipei where she attends an Amadeus event and gets an update on the travel industry on the island they call Formosa.

So I have just returned from Taipei where I was taking part in the Amadeus Travel Industry Forum.

It's been so long since my last visit, possibly more than a decade ago – so I wasn't sure what to expect.

I recall good food, crazy traffic and night markets and a travel industry that was just beginning to emerge as a key outbound market and struggling to grow its inbound business.

I recall hot springs, Sun Moon Lake and the Three Sisters – images etched in my mind from a brief trip I took outside Taipei.

This time, I stayed in Taipei, one of those fast-in, fast-out, single-purpose trips – which was to speak at the Amadeus event and get first-hand updates about the travel industry, in particular the online travel landscape.

So here's what I learnt – Taiwan's travel industry is on the brink of major change, driven by three main factors – the opening of direct cross-straits flights between China and Taiwan 15 months ago on July 4, 2008, the entry of low cost airlines such as AirAsia X and the increased use of the Internet by Taiwanese consumers.

Cross-straits flights have had a profound impact on both inbound and outbound travel patterns. In the first 12 months, Chinese tourists to Taiwan exceeded one million – possibly the biggest leap ever by a single market in such a short timeframe.

While demand is slowing down and passenger loads are no longer at 90% as during the first few months, travel agencies, previously more focused on outbound, are now setting their sights on getting a share of this new pie.

Outbound travel patterns have also shifted dramatically. Direct travel to China has resulted in drops in traffic to almost every destination that the Taiwanese used to favour.

Yeoh Siew Hoon, one of Asia's most respected travel editors and commentators, writes a regular column on news, trends and issues in the hospitality industry for 4Hoteliers.com.

Siew Hoon, who has covered the tourism industry in Asia/Pacific for the past 20 years, runs SHY Ventures Pte Ltd. Her other writings can be found at www.thetransitcafe.com

Get your weekly cuppa of news, gossip, humour and opinion at the cafe for travel insiders.

4Hoteliers is the "Official Daily News" of WIT09 - www.webintravel.com