Tourism stocks advanced yesterday as media outlets in China reported that Beijing would announce regulations allowing more Chinese tourists to visit Taiwan. The news boosted share prices of hoteliers such as Formosa International Hotels Corp (晶華) to record highs.
Formosa gained NT$3.1, or 6.4 percent, to close at NT$51.6. The Ambassador Hotel Ltd (國賓) rose NT$1.75 to NT$26.85, and Leofoo Development Co (六福) climbed NT$1.1 to NT$17.45, both reaching the upper limit of 7 percent on share price fluctuations.
"We welcome China's policy to ease its tourism ban, which will bring huge economic benefits to Taiwan," said Johnson Tseng (
In 2002, the government limited the number of visitors from China to 1,000 per day, or 365,000 a year, but because Beijing maintains strict controls on visits to Taiwan, only 19,000 Chinese tourists came to Taiwan for sightseeing last year, and 13,900 engaged in academic and business exchanges here, according to government statistics.
If the current quota of Chinese visitors were to be filled every day, the Taiwanese economy would receive an injection of NT$50 billion (US$1.6 billion) per year, Tseng said.
China consented allowing more of its citizens to visit Taiwan after meetings with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜).
One of China's official news agencies reported yesterday that the National Tourism Administration plans to announce concrete regulations on cross-strait tourism soon. Later in the afternoon Beijing said it would adjust its regulations in accordance with the capacity and conditions set by Taiwan, according to an official Chinese Web-based news publication.
To capitalize on an expected flood of tourists wanting to visit Taiwan, many travel agencies in China have come up with travel packages ranging in price from NT$4,000 to NT$8,000, according to China News Service.
Huang Hsin-chuan (黃信川), a vice president of sales at Lion Travel Service Co (雄獅旅行社), Taiwan's largest travel agency, said the agency is also preparing for an influx of visitors from China.
"All the local tourism-related businesses are pinning great hopes on the easing of restrictions, which we believe will greatly boost Taiwan's tourism industry," Huang said.
Lion Travel has already come up with several preliminary travel packages which include sightseeing spots that are popular with tourists from China, such as Sun Moon Lake, Alishan and Taroko Gorge, Huang said.
Tseng said the government should draw up laws to regulate local travel agencies before crowds of Chinese nationals start coming to Taiwan.
Taiwanese firms have increased investment in the Philippines in recent years as Manila’s ties with Washington deepen and global supply chains continue to shift away from China, an expert at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The Philippines had not been among Taiwanese investors’ top choices in Southeast Asia, CIER Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center director Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈) said at a seminar in Taipei. However, Taiwan’s investment in the country has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching US $257 million last year, a high in recent years, she said. Although Taiwan’s total investment in the Philippines still lags
HSBC Holdings PLC is deepening its commitment to Taiwan as the economy emerges as one of the bank’s fastest-growing markets globally, driven by an artificial intelligence (AI) investment boom, expanding cross-border trade, and rising wealth creation. “The advantage that Taiwan has is a growth story linked to the semiconductor and broader AI industries, strong underlying corporate performance, and wealth creation,” said Surendra Rosha, HSBC’s co-chief executive for Asia and the Middle East, in an exclusive interview with the Taipei Times on June 2, during this year’s HSBC Taiwan Conference. That combination has helped HSBC cement its position as the most profitable international
Intel Corp regards Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) as a longstanding partner, as the US chipmaker would continue outsourcing production of advanced chips to TSMC, Intel chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) said yesterday. “I don’t look at people as competitors. I look at the collaboration... Nvidia is also, you know, a good friend,” Tan told a news conference following his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei. “It’s a very trusted partnership for us... We are a big, top customer for them, and we’re going to continue doing that,” he said, referring to TSMC, the world’s largest foundry
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said it would work with US chipmaker Intel Corp to jointly develop and deploy next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and intelligent computing platforms in a move to capture booming demand for AI computing systems. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), said in a statement that the partnership would combine its global manufacturing scale, system integration expertise and AI data center deployment capabilities with Intel’s strengths in processor architecture, silicon technologies and software ecosystem. The companies said they plan to work on equipment used in AI data centers, including server racks powered by
RSS