Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) opened the city’s first international-brand hotel — Holiday Inn Express Taichung Park — at a ceremony yesterday.
Hu and other invited guests cut a ribbon for the formal opening of the 169-room hotel, located in the center of the city.
Also present at the ceremony were City Council Speaker Chang Hung-nien (張宏年) and City Councilor Chen Yu-mei (陳玉梅).
Hu said he hoped that the new hotel would help revitalize the city’s central business district, which has seen reduced growth and prosperity in recent years because of a lack of investment.
Holiday Inn Express Taichung Park is part of the Sunshine Plaza shopping complex, which opened in August.
The property was developed by Esse Commerce Development Co of Taiwan at a cost of NT$1.2 billion (US$36.52 million).
The Holiday Inn Express hotel chain is part of the UK-based InterContinental Hotels Group — one of the largest hotel groups in the world by number of rooms.
The group owns, manages, leases or franchises almost 4,000 hotels and more than 590,000 rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories.
The new Holiday Inn Express is located next to Taichung Park, which celebrated its centennial on Oct. 24.
Guests staying at the hotel would be within walking distance of the Stock 20 Art Gallery, Taichung City Hall, the Confucius Temple, the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts and the National Museum of Natural Science.
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