The Okura Prestige Taipei (大倉九和), the newest addition to the Tokyo-based international luxury hotel group Okura Hotels & Resorts, yesterday celebrated its official entry into the Taiwanese market.
With 18 stories above ground and seven underground and 208 guestrooms with Asian and Western decor and modern amenities, the hotel hopes to take advantage of Taiwan’s thriving tourism market. It is located in Taipei’s bustling Zhongshan District (中山), a place closely connected to Japan’s presence in Taiwan.
VITAL MARKET
The hotel group is rapidly expanding overseas and Taiwan is an important market for the group, given the rapid increase in Japanese tourists, Japanese general manager Shinji Umehara said.
Bilateral travel between Taiwan and Japan is expected to reach 3 million trips this year, jumping 23 percent from last year, Umehara said, adding that figures from last year rose 20 percent from a year earlier.
Japan is the second-largest source of foreign tourists to Taiwan after China, with the number of visitors gradually recovering to the levels before the earthquake on March 11 last year, he said.
The aviation agreement between the two countries last year to lift restrictions on the number of carriers allowed to offer scheduled passenger services will make bilateral business and tourist travel easier and more frequent, Umehara said.
Umehara expects the occupancy rate at the Okura Prestige Taipei to reach 65 percent to 70 percent, with room rates averaging NT$5,500 and NT$6,000.
He expects Japanese travelers to account for 70 percent of the clientele, while European, Taiwanese and guests from other Asian countries are expected to account for another 10 percent each.
Food and beverages are expected to generate 40 percent of the hotel’s revenue and hotel rooms another 60 percent, he said.
The hotel offers three dining options, including Okura’s signature Japanese restaurant “Yamazato” and Cantonese restaurant “Toh-Ka-Lin.” The hotel also features two full bars — one in the lobby and the other next to the rooftop swimming pool.
BENEFICIAL
The Ambassador Hotel (國賓大飯店) and the Regent Taipei (晶華) welcomed the new entrant, saying competition is beneficial to the industry.
Ambassador vice president and head of financial department Bill Chen (陳榮輝) said the presence of Okura Prestige might attract more visitors to Taiwan and lift the sector’s overall room rates, as the entry of W Hotel did last year.
The Regent Taipei voiced similar views, saying the hotel also benefited from increased competition in recent years.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last