As post-election political stormclouds hover over the nation, five-star hotels are receiving fewer bookings than expected for this month, which used to be a boom season for the sector, industry officials said yesterday.
With a fall-off in bookings over SARS fears one year ago, hotels had pinned their hopes on this month, when a number of trade shows are held in the capital, and expected a jump in occupancy rates.
"But because of the ongoing demonstrations over the presidential election result, especially in front of the Presidential Office building, the hotel business is not good now," Duke Nam, the general manager of The Westin Taipei, said yesterday.
"The business only grew by 20 percent compared with March last year," Nam said.
As the hotel sector finally broke away from the shadow of SARS, it nevertheless suffered again after the bird flu outbreak and now from political instability, he added.
"We hope that the [slow sales] situation will gradually pick up after May," he said.
Nam said many Japanese tourists have postponed their trips at this point. "They won't come until May 20," when the presidential inauguration ceremony is held, he added.
Grand Formosa Regent Hotel relies heavily on Japanese clients, who account for 45 percent of its customer base.
"The business is down by around 10 percent compared with the same period in 2002. We expect Japan's `golden week,' which starts April 26, will bring in more tourists and raise revenues," Ellen Chang (張筠), marketing and communications manager at Grand Formosa Regent, said.
An official with Caesar Park Taipei Hotel shared her view.
"The Japanese tourism market has not returned to normal. But I believe the post-election effects are only short-lived, and we expect the situation to improve this week, more than half a month after the election," said Amy Chen (
All three officials agreed that the political uncertainty has a bigger impact on leisure tourists, while the corporate client market is growing strong.
As a result, these hotels are refitting their in-room facilities with the hope of further consolidating their corporate client base.
"We have forked out nearly NT$22 million to install 130 42-inch plasma display panel (PDP) televisions in 60 percent of the rooms and wireless Internet services to offer high-quality in-room entertainment for those on business trips," Nam said.
"Westin Taipei aims to become the most digital, top-notch business-oriented hotel in Taiwan," Nam added.
Grand Formosa Regent is also upgrading its services by introducing the "All Butler Service," which means that corporate clients who stay in the "Tai Pan" -- a traditional Chinese-language term for CEO -- suites on the 18th and 19th floors of the hotel can use the services of a personal valet. The hotel has also installed lounges and changed the furniture on the floors, and plans to inaugurate the "hotel within a hotel" concept on May 1, Chang said.
To reflect costs, all the hotels have raised room rates by an average 3 to 5 percent this year.
"We don't think customers will be scared away by the rising rates, as better services are now available," Chen said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained