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.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six