Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) said yesterday that increased profits for the southern port city’s major international tourist and business hotels despite tough economic times reflected the city’s high-quality, low-priced tourism resources.
Speaking at a meeting attended by Kaohsiung Tourism Association honorary president Lin Fu-nan (林富男), Chen said that the city’s four major international hotels increased their occupancy between January and August by a total of 6,442 bookings compared with the same period a year earlier.
Chen said that Kaohsiung had been the only city in Taiwan to achieve growth in this area this year, attesting to its draw as a tourist destination.
Lin affirmed the city government’s efforts to boost Kaohsiung’s tourism industry. However, he said that more could be done, adding that 250 of the city’s smaller hotels still had average occupancy rates of less than 50 percent.
Bureau of Redevelopment Director Liu Hsin-cheng (劉馨正) said the fact that Kaohsiung’s major international hotels boosted their revenue was the result of the city’s attractive tourist resources and the municipal government’s efforts, in cooperation with local tourism operators, to promote Kaohsiung tourism in countries such as Japan and Singapore.
He said that the revenue growth rate of the four international tourist and business hotels in Kaohsiung ranked first, third, fifth and sixth among the country’s major hotels for the January to August period.
Meanwhile, Chen announced on Monday that she would head for South Korea today to promote tourism.
She said she hoped the visit could help create more business opportunities for Kaohsiung’s tourism sector.
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