"Welcome 2 Taiwan!"

That's the tagline of the Taiwan Tourism Board's latest campaign, as it announced its newest tourism ambassadors.

Yes, not one, but two representatives - celebrated Taiwanese director Wu Nien-Jen, and popular songstress Jolin Tsai, who turned up at the press conference on Monday at The Swissotel in a wedding dress.

Easy guys, she's not getting married. She's just promoting Taiwan as a great wedding destination, and a beautiful backdrop for those once-in-a-lifetime wedding photos.

The Taiwan Tourism Board (TTB) has been successful in using high profile celebrities in its previous campaigns. For example, pop singer Chang Hui-mei (A-mei), the spokesperson for Taiwan tourism for the last three years, resulted in a 10.82% increase of Singaporean visitors to the island last year.

The TTB hopes this year's ambassadors will do even better. It is targeting an increase of 7% in overall visitor numbers over the 3.75 million last year. More than 180,000 Singaporeans alone visited Taiwan in 2006, and mid-year figures show half that number (90,000) has already been reached as of June 2007.

Choosing two ambassadors also serves a dual purpose - it not only represents the "2" in the slogan "Welcome 2 Taiwan", it also reflects two very different sides of the country : old vs new, age vs youth, tradition vs modernity. Hence, the selection of two different personalities from two different generations.

Unfortunately, age and maturity won our vote, as the strain of one-on-one interview sessions took its toll on the delicate singer. Tsai irrevocably dented her image as Taiwan's spokesperson, by refusing all video interviews and photo sessions after less than an hour of being her country's representative.