I recently returned from Taipei, love the city and its street life – a quirky mix of Chinese and Japanese flavours – and it made me realize it’s the only market in North Asia now that doesn’t have a home-based low cost carrier. 

Ya, sad.

Most people go to Taipei to rave about the beef noodles, the braised oyster noodles and spring onion cakes but me, I’ve got airlines on my mind. Shows I’ve been flying too much. Either that or I need a holiday.

And maybe that’s what more people in Taiwan need too. At Taipei airport, I spoke to the young girl checking me in and she was yearning to visit Singapore and travel more, but she told me that she couldn’t afford too many trips.

When I asked her why she didn’t take the low cost airlines – there are at least seven foreign low cost airlines flying into Taipei from Korea, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore, four of which started only in the last few months – she asked, “Are they safe?”

See, low cost airlines are still a new thing in Taiwan and this is one highly traditional market where distribution is firmly in the hands of travel agents and consolidators, and the relationship between airlines and agents is, in a word, complex.

So low cost airlines have not been able to make the direct connection they want to with the Taiwanese consumers. “The marketing hasn’t been that effective here, most of them operate through GSAs so unlike in other markets like China, low cost airlines are not seen as hip or cool, just cheap,” said one industry observer.

I asked a couple of airline folk if they felt a nationally-based low cost airline would work and most of them are pretty skeptical about it. “Air fares are already so cheap out of Taiwan so how can anyone go any cheaper?” said one.

When Scoot launched its flights to Taipei, its promotional fares were 50% lower than Singapore Airlines, which shows there is room to go lower. But whether such low fares can be sustained in a closed, conservative market, it’s hard to tell.

Inbound to Taiwan is booming though. China now forms 60% of inbound tourists to Taiwan, now that direct ties have been established for individuals as well as groups.

Hotels are doing well. I was talking to the co-founder of Travelmob, T Fuad, this week and he told me his social stay site was seeing lots of requests for accommodation in Taiwan, showing people want alternatives to the traditional hotel stay.

In terms of outbound, travel is still pretty group-dominated. But whatever the situation now, I can almost guarantee that things will change in Taiwan, just as they have in all other markets where low cost airlines fly to.

It’s only a matter of time before a new generation of consumers come onto the market with purchasing power. I met many of these during my trip and they are all Western-educated and far more global than their parents.

They are ready to explore the world using whatever means at their disposal.

Plus, according to a recent survey of Millennials by Visa International, which showed that this generation desires the simpler things in life, Taiwanese scored the highest yearn factor – over 83% of Taiwanese want the simple things in life, compared with 80% of Singaporeans and 79% percent of South Koreans.

I don’t feel that life in Taipei is any more stressful than it is in other Asian capital cities – people seem to be friendly and smiling – but the traffic’s as bad – took me more than an hour to get from airport to hotel; there’s constant construction going on; and life on the streets is raucous and chaotic.

Plus if I use my SHY index of stress – number of massage places relative to other outlets within a stretch of shops – then Taipei’s got to be up there. You can’t walk down a major street and not see several massage places.

Okay, I didn’t pop into one – on account my head was in the clouds, thinking of airlines.

Sad.