Tour fees are expected to rise across the board in the coming months, with tours to the US and Canada seeing the largest jump in prices, the latest data by the Travel Quality Assurance Association (TQAA, 旅行業品保協會) showed.
Between next month and June, tour fees for groups heading to the US and Canada will increase by between NT$10,000 and NT$20,000 compared with the same period last year, mostly on rising airfare, the association said in a press statement.
“Airfares are soaring because local airlines increased the number of direct cross-strait flights in response to growth in Chinese tourist arrivals, which edged out other outbound flights,” TQAA spokesperson Jones Chen (陳屬庄) told reporters on Friday.
Chen said airfare for US-bound flights would double in the next quarter, while those for Japan and Europe would see a 30 percent increase and Southeast Asia a likely increase of between 15 percent and 20 percent.
“With increased global business and soaring international crude oil prices, many airlines have raised their ticket prices,” Chen said, adding that airfare would likely continue to rise throughout the year.
TQAA data showed that tour fees for New Zealand would rise by about NT$10,000 in the next quarter, while those for Australia would see an increase of between NT$4,000 and NT$10,000.
Chen said travelers should plan their itineraries as soon as possible before flight tickets are sold out.
“Those who plan to travel overseas on a limited budget should not wait,” he said.
“A hike in tour fees is not necessarily a bad thing for customers” as it could improve the quality of services provided by travel agencies, Chen said, adding that experience showed that aggressive price competition often resulted in poor service quality.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure