Travel industry representatives appealed to lawmakers yesterday to help travel agencies, saying the sector is at risk of collapse.
Hardest hit are sales of China-bound tours, which have seen a 90 percent drop as nervous customers cancelled trips over fears of severe acture respiratory syndrome (SARS) cases in China and Hong Kong.
Over the past 10 days, 500 group tours have been cancelled, Chinese-language media reported yesterday.
"The industry is under serious threat. ? We need the government's assistance to survive," said Tseng Sheng-hai (曾盛海), chairman of the Taipei Association of Travel Agents.
He urged the government to offer financial aid or to exempt travel agencies from income taxes.
If travel fears escalate, some 2,400 travel agencies employing nearly 100,000 employees may be forced to cut jobs because of sagging sales, Tseng said.
The Tourism Bureau is scheduled to discuss the issue in a special meeting next week.
On Thursday, the government announced restrictions on civil servants' visits to China, Hong Kong and Vietnam after the World Health Organization named these countries as affected areas.
Yesterday Taiwan was added to that list, sparking fears that arrivals may also suffer.
Travel on Dragon Airlines Ltd (
The nation's two largest airlines, EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) and China Airlines Co (中華航空), which operate more than 40 passenger flights a week each to Hong Kong, reported a 5 percent cancellation rate yesterday.
Inbound tourism generates nearly NT$4 billion in revenue, or 1.4 percent of annual GDP, for Taiwan.
"The situation is very bad ? our inbound group tour sales have slid 60 percent from the same period last year," said Sung Tzu-ming (
The company has specialized in bringing in visitors for more than 20 years and handles around 10,000 Japanese tourists each year.
Japan currently has no confirmed SARS cases, but has eight suspected cases, one of which is from from Taiwan, Sung said.
Japan is a major contributor to the domestic tourism market. According to the Tourism Bureau, 971,190 Japanese visited Taiwan last year, accounting for 37 percent of the total number of visitors.
The Grand Formosa Hotel, a popular choice with Japanese visitors, has seen a 10 percent cancellation rate since the outbreak of the disease, according to Ellen Chang (
Next to the Taipei World Trade Center, the Grand Hyatt Taipei is also seeing fewer guests.
"We have seen a several-digit drop in our occupancy rates [from the same period last year]," said Luanne Li (
Agence France Press yesterday reported that the US government would halt non-essential travel by government employees to China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan until further notice.
"The disease as well as the Iraq war will have an immediate impact on Taiwan's tourism industry," said Tseng Kuo-chi (
This will undermine the government's plan to double the annual number of foreign arrivals to 5 million by 2008, he added.
purpose: Tesla’s CEO sought to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the rollout of its ‘full self-driving’ software in China and approval to transfer data they had collected Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X. "Honored to meet with Premier Li
Dutch brewing company Heineken NV on Friday announced an investment of NT$13.5 billion (US$414.62 million) over the next five years in Taiwan. The first multinational brewing company to operate in Taiwan, Heineken made the statement at a ceremony held at its brewery in Pingtung County. It also outlined its efforts to make the brewery “net zero” by 2030. Heineken has been in the Taiwanese market for 20 years, Heineken Taiwan managing director Jeff Wu (吳建甫) said. With strong support from local consumers, the Dutch brewery decided to transition from sales to manufacturing in the country, Wu said. Heineken assumed majority ownership and management rights
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI