Taipei-based Cosmos Hotel & Resorts Group (天成飯店集團) aims to grow revenue this year aided by the launch of a new hotel next month, despite a soft economy at home and abroad.
The hospitality provider, which operates five hotels and one independent restaurant, expects to generate NT$1.7 billion (US$51.98 million) in revenue this year, a modest increase of 3 percent from last year, in line with a multi-branding expansion strategy, the company said.
“We have sensed the economic slowdown, but its impact is not evident on the group, thanks to quick strategy adjustments,” the company’s assistant director of marketing and communication Blythe Chao (趙芝綺) said by telephone.
Cosmos Hotel Taipei (台北天成大飯店), the company’s oldest hotel and main source of revenue, had an occupancy rate of 96.63 percent in the first quarter, extending its leadership from last year with 95.7 percent, the company said.
Its location in front of Taipei Main Station and low-price strategy make it a top choice among independent travelers exploring Taipei and Taiwan, the company said.
Cosmos Taipei room rates averaged NT$3,500 per night last year and are likely to stay flat this year, the company said.
The economic weakness increases the difficulty of securing customers, but the group has made adjustments to expand and diversify its customer base, the company said.
In particular, the group has opened new facilities targeting young independent travelers, it added.
The launch next month of a new hotel in Chaiyi under the Sun Dialogue Hotel (天成文旅-繪日之丘) brand is an example of the ongoing adjustments, after setting up the budget hotel Bee House (蜂巢) in 2013.
Independent travelers account for 95 percent of the group’s customer base with tourists from Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia all contributing sizable shares, Chao said, adding that Japanese and Hong Kongers make up 20 percent of the market each.
The group is not losing its focus on business and high-end customers, with an occupancy rate of 91.55 percent at its five-star facility, Taipei Garden Hotel (台北花園大酒店) last year, the company said.
Various trade fairs, such as the Taipei International Cycle Show in March and Computex next month, help fill rooms and dining facilities, the company said.
In addition, the company is expected to open a luxury resort hotel in Hualien County’s Ruisui Township (瑞穗) in the second quarter of next year.
If things proceed smoothly, the company intends to seek primary listing in the local bourse in 2019, it said.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to