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Travel fair closes on a positive note

Visitors swarm Exhibition Hall 1 of the Taipei World Trade Center yesterday — the last day of the four-day 2009 Taipei International Travel Fair. PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES

The travel industry looks set to bid goodbye to the gloomy days and pick up momentum going into next year, exhibitors at the annual Taipei International Travel Fair (ITF) said yesterday.

“Travel sentiment has been down since early this year. People have reserved budgets for travel but put their plans on hold because of a sagging economy,” said Melody Wang (王窕如), public relations officer at Lion Travel Service Co (雄獅旅行社), on the sidelines of the exhibition.

“We started to see momentum pick up in August as more consumers get ready to travel,” she said.

Lion Travel, one of Taiwan’s major travel agencies, expected its sales at the four-day fair to grow by between 10 percent and 20 percent from NT$210 million (US$6.4 million) at last year’s show.

Working in cooperation with EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空), the company offered four direct charter flights with a total seat capacity of 800 for travel to New Zealand in January and February. The direct 11-hour flight saves consumers from transiting via a third destination, the report said.

Despite the package price of NT$98,800 per person, a customer forked out nearly NT$1 million at the ITF for a 10-member trip, Wang said.

AirAsia, a Malaysia-based low-cost airline, took advantage to raise its public profile in Taiwan. The airline had just moved into Taiwan by introducing flights to Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.

“A lot of people came and asked why we could provide flights with such economic fares,” said Pauline Shan (單寶蓉), AirAsia’s public relations representative.

Reservations for the two routes during Lunar New Year could be tight thanks to the promotion, but more deals could still be found on the company’s Web site for the rest of the year, she added.

Cash registers were also ringing non-stop for companies wanting to boost domestic travel.

The response to hotel and buffet package offers by Leofoo Tourism Group (六福旅遊集團) — which includes the Westin Hotel (六福皇宮), the Leofoo Hotel (六福客棧) and Leofoo Village Theme Park (六福村主題遊樂園) — was overwhelming, the group said.

Its offer of 500 packages for a first-hand experience of the Leofoo Resort Guanshi (六福莊生態渡假旅館) was sold out on the first day, said Dennis Liu (劉春豪), corporate director of group marketing.

Set to open in January and located in Hsinchu County, the resort features wildlife on site and provides 164 rooms with Africa-inspired architecture and landscape design.

Wego Hotel Group (薇閣精品旅館), meanwhile, saw consumers vie for “rest vouchers” for its Dazhi hotel.

Two hundred vouchers for a 2.5-hour hotel “rest,” slashed from NT$1,500 to NT$900, were all sold on the first day, the company said.

The fair at Taipei World Trade Center’s Exhibition Hall 1 ended yesterday, attracting 210,752 visitors, down from last year’s 215,125.
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