Has tourism commoditise cultures and traditions of Taiwan?

In my personal opinion, I feel that tourism had commodified the cultures and traditions of Taiwan to a certain extent. An important part of Taiwan’s culture would be the indigenous groups. Due to tourism, the government had set up theme parks that portray the culture and tourists would need to pay in order to enter these attractions. Culture had been commoditised in this sense as it is sold as a product in terms of experience to the tourists. In additional, within these parks, merchandise that resembles the traditional handcrafts of the groups would also be produce to sell as souvenirs to the tourist. Traditional culture has thus been commercialised and mass sell to the market.

The various festivals in Taiwan have also been commodified to attract more tourists to visit the country. Festivals had been elaborated to entice tourists to visit. For example, the Lantern festivals, people would celebrate it by just carrying lantern to walk around. However, the tourism bureau of Taiwan had started to organise the Taiwan Lantern Festivals somewhat 20 years ago with the display of large high-technology theme lantern and traditional performances will also be put together to create a livelier festivals mood. From a traditionally small scale event had now become a large and lavish celebration, it proved that to earn the dollar from tourists, culture and traditions of Taiwan had changed and commodified.