Travelers will see a smaller rate of increase in the cost of tours to Southeast Asia, Japan and China in January to March compared with the same period this year, the Taipei-based Travel Quality Assurance Association (TQAA 旅行業品質保障協會) said yesterday.
Australia and New Zealand will be the most expensive travel destinations, it said.
Group fees for traveling to Southeast Asian nations in the first quarter will see an increase of NT$1,000 (US$31) to NT$2,000 compared with the same period this year, because of an increase in plane fares and the NT$250 increase in Thailand's visa fee, the association said.
During the winter vacation and the Lunar New Year holidays, group fees for trips to Japan will increase by between NT$2,000 and NT$4,000, the association's survey of its member companies found.
Wu Chih-sung (
Group fees for China -- the destination for nearly 50 percent of outbound tourists last year -- are expected to increase by just NT$1,000 this winter. The association blamed the increase on the strengthening yuan and rises in the price of oil.
Traveling to Australia and New Zealand, meanwhile, will cost an additional NT$4,000 to NT$11,000 compared with the same period this year -- although travelers headed for New Zealand between Feb. 1 and Feb. 9 should expect to pay NT$20,000 more than this year.
"Aside from the nice weather in the southern hemisphere, the sharp increase in Australia and New Zealand's group fees is down to the limited number of plane seats the airlines now provide to local travel agencies," said Huang Hsien-tsai (
"This is because airline companies now distribute their plane seats based on the prices being offered," Huang said, adding that demand was outstripping supply.
Compared to other countries, the lower priced plane tickets available in Taiwan means fewer seats will be available, he said.
The TQAA said it has set up a committee to investigate complaints of false advertising, especially exaggerated low-price offers, to try to prevent a repeat of incidents where travel agencies closed after collecting payments for Lunar New Year holiday trips.
The association also urged consumers to choose only legal travel agencies and ones that are TQAA members.
It said consumers could also try to protect themselves by signing contracts with their travel agencies, asking for receipts and paying for their trips using credit cards.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
RSS