Experts and company leaders yesterday said that the nation’s tourism and hospitality industries are expected to grow moderately next year, with the potential to exceed the nation’s GDP growth rate threefold, despite the current economic downturn.
“The tourism and hospitality sectors are highly resilient to shifts in economic cycles, as we have found that people are reluctant to cut travel spending during lean times,” Phoenix Tours International Inc (鳳凰國際旅行社) president Jimmy Chang (張金明) said at a forum event organized by the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (中華經濟研究院).
“While we are not expecting a red-hot high season, sales are not likely to dip sharply in the low season either,” he added while commenting on the government’s discouraging GDP growth forecast of 0.9 percent for this quarter.
“Unlike the technology or manufacturing sector, gains in the tourism and hospitality industries are not dominated by a few giants, and serve as a catalyst for other industries, such as airlines and retail, and is an important aspect of Taiwan’s economy and a major job-creator,” Chang said.
Chang said that tourism industry prospects remain sound and that currently there are about 10 travel agencies looking to be listed on the local bourse.
Howard Beach Resort Kenting (墾丁福華渡假飯店) general manager Chang Chi-kuang (張積光) said that following deregulation allowing Chinese tourists in Taiwan, banks and real-estate agencies soon established a presence in the Kenting area.
Chang said that when provided with appropriate impetus, consumers are likely to spend.
“During consecutive holidays spanning across three or four days, we see our revenues surging threefold,” he said.
However, Chang Chi-kuang said that January’s presidential race might stir up political issues that could significantly lower the number of Chinese visitors, while Jimmy Chang said that the stalemate over the cross-strait trade in services agreement had led to countless lost opportunities.
Taipei 101 president Chou Te-yu (周德宇) and Sun Kuo-hua (孫國華), chairman of Vigor Kobo (維格餅家), a bakery that focuses on traditional cakes and pastries, said that the nation’s tourism and hospitality sectors must compete by elevating quality as opposed to striving for quantity.
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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