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A waiter at Tasty restaurant on Nanking East Road serves a packed crowd yesterday after the steak house chain saw a major rebound in guest numbers. PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES

Taiwanese ventured out of a SARS-induced hibernation over the weekend, spurred on by a government announcement that the deadly virus may finally be under control.

Pedestrian traffic has been up markedly at shopping malls, restaurants and movie theaters over the past few days and travel agents are reporting a flurry of bookings from consumers keen on reviving shelved travel plans.

"This is the first time in the last six weeks we have visited a department store," said Tina Chung (鍾婷芸), a 32-year-old mother of two, dining at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store's (新光三越) food court near the Taipei railway station yesterday.

"The kids and I have been sick and tired of staying at home all day ... we needed to get out for a break," she said.

Consumers' concerns over SARS also eased after media reported that the rate of new SARS cases dropped last week.

"We saw a significant increase in traffic over the weekend," said Lee Kuang-rong (李光榮), vice president of Pacific Sogo Department Store (太平洋崇光百貨), which was forced to close for two days in early May for disinfection after two shoppers and a cashier reportedly came down with SARS symptoms.

Shoppers returned to Sogo en masse after the department store reopened, with traffic continuing to rebound to nearly 100,000 visitors per day over the weekend.

But the company has no plans to ease its strict SARS prevention procedures, including requiring all staff to wear masks and customers to have their temperatures checked at the door.

"We won't cancel these procedures until SARS is no longer a threat to Taiwan," Lee said.

The positive news, if warranted, could cushion the blow of nearly seven weeks of lethargic sales at Taiwanese consumer-dependent businesses after the disease spread following the closure of Taipei Municipal Hoping Hospital on April 24.

Out on the town

Consumers since then have been slowly venturing back to their favorite watering holes and eateries.

All five of Taipei's Tasty restaurants (西堤牛排) have seen a surge in customers after Lee Ming-liang (李明亮), head of the Cabinet's SARS prevention committee, urged residents on May 24 to return to their normal lives because it appeared the battle against the epidemic was being won.

"Our five restaurants have been packed since last week after the government announcement," said Simon Kao (高端訓), Tasty's assistant manager.

Taiwanese restaurant chain Shin Yeh (欣葉) and the US' TGI Friday's Taiwan are also reporting an uptick in restaurant patrons in recent days.

Shin Yeh saw 30 percent more tables full last week compared to the previous month, said deputy marketing manager Erica Chen (陳臆如), while TGI Friday's Taiwan enjoyed a more than 10 percent sales increase every week over the past two weeks, according to the restaurant's marketing manager, Sophie Cheng (周雅敏).

In late April, a Ministry of Economic Affairs report predicted that the restaurant sector would be hardest hit by the disease outbreak, with sales down by more than 20 percent in the current quarter.

Night owls are also coming out of the woodwork to liven up Taipei's all-night club scene.

"With SARS fears seeming to ease a bit, business rose by 10 percent last weekend," said Andy Chuang (莊起鳴), president of Brown Sugar, a jazz club near Warner Village.

Taipei's Plush disco said more than business was up more than two-thirds on Saturday after falling being 50 percent down the previous weekend.

"I believe as long as SARS is contained, people will come back to enjoy the night life," said Junior Lin (林志弘), a shareholder in the club.

One weekend warrior was ready to return to the party.

"Now I feel more comfortable hanging out with my friends in nightclubs like we used to," said Ann Lin (林譽安), an employee at I-View Process Post Production Corp (意象影像處理).

Cinema-goers too appeared to heading back to the big screen over the past weekend as SARS fears took a back seat to entertainment.

"Viewer traffic in our Taipei theater over the past weekend rose by around 14 percent from 12,000 to 14,000," said a Warner Village cinema official who asked not to be named.

That number is still down from, on average, 20,000 customers that usually pack the halls of Warner Village on the weekend, the official said.

The theater has held off on new releases until movie-goer traffic is stable, Warner Village cinema operation manager Jessie Chou (周美惠) said yesterday.

Reviving travel plans

Meanwhile, travel bookings to SARS-free destinations have swelled over the past few days as the public choose to jumpstart vacation plans delayed because of the infectious disease.

"Bookings for flights to Bali are about 90 percent full in June," said Frank Chen (陳豐續), president of the Lion Travel Ltd (雄獅旅行社), which offers full-package group tours to Indonesia's resort island in partnership with EVA Airways Corp (長榮).

"Most people have gradually accepted that travel by air does not increase the risk of contracting SARS," Chen said.

Bookings to Thailand's Phuket island also saw substantial growth over the past week, said Lee Lo-sheng (李羅生), a sales manager at Longwaytour Travel Service Ltd (明泰旅行社).

"Phuket became very popular these days, and there is growing interest in holiday destinations that are viewed as safe to visit such as Australia and New Zealand," Lee said.

Longwaytour Travel is offering budget travel packages to Phuket with China Airlines Co (華航), Taiwan's largest carrier.

"Bookings are about 80-90 percent full on flights to Phuket this month," Lee said.

According to government statistics, the number of passengers passing through Chiang Kai-shek International Airport totalled 8,362 on Sunday, compared with around 6,500 a week ago.

Officials have said the nation is appealing to the World Health Organization to lift its travel warning against the country by June 20.

"The outbreak seems to be nearly over but it would be premature to say we're free of SARS just because the daily number of new cases was in single digits over the past few days," said Ingrid Chen (陳姿瑛), corporate communication manager of the ING Antai Life Insurance Co (安泰人壽).

Despite the apparent containment of the infectious virus, consumers are expected to remain cautious on spending, an Academia Sinica economist said yesterday.

"The worst may be over [regarding the spread of SARS], but deep in their hearts people know that the virus is still around and therefore may not be able to totally relax," said Wu Chung-shu (吳中書), a research fellow at Academia Sinica's Institute of Economics.

"Learning from the experience of Toronto and Singapore, Taiwanese know that the epidemic may come back to haunt them," Wu said.
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