Taiwan needs to create its own unique hot-spring culture to develop tourism in this sector further, industry insiders told the Taipei Times yesterday.
"In order to make Taiwan's hot spring tourism industry stand out from the crowd, it is essential to develop a distinct Taiwan spa culture. This is also our primary task," said Jason Lee (
Taiwan inherited a centuries-old spa culture from Japan, which ruled the nation as a colony for 50 years until 1945. Many hot spring facilities are still built in a Japanese style to attract customers.
"Two of the world's four rare seabed hot springs are located in Taiwan's Green Island (
The association has studied the experiences of other countries including France and Russia and is now applying to become a member of the World Health Organization's World Federation of Hydrotherapy and Climatotherapy.
In France, patients who suffer from skin diseases can receive spa treatments after getting a prescription from their doctor, for which their health insurance pays.
"We plan to extend the use of Taiwan's hot spring resources into the medical field," Lee said. "We hope that the government can assist the industry by establishing some research institutes to explore the applications of hot springs like what Japan is doing currently with money collected from the industry after the Spa Law (
The Legislative Yuan approved the Spa Law this June to keep the nation's hot-springs resources under Aboriginal control with an eye to developing the spa industry as a national tourist attraction.
According to the law, spa business operators who are located in aboriginal regions would need to move. And some businesses will have to improve the construction of their premises to comply with the new law within a seven-year grace period.
Spa operators now also have to pay the government for the use of the hot springs, which are now considered national assets.
Qualified operators will be given licenses by the Bureau of Tourism (
Insiders welcomed the new regulations yesterday.
"This measure not only protects licensed business operators from unqualified ones but also safeguards consumers from being defrauded," said Roger Sha (
However, both Lee and Sha said that the money the industry needs to pay for the utilization of the hot springs would add to their costs and it is foreseeable that they would transfer the expenses to the consumers with price increases.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is