Landis Taipei Hotel Co (亞都麗緻) aims to emerge unharmed this year from an economic downturn after revenue dropped 4.97 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier and has yet to show signs of improvement this quarter.
“We are striving to subdue the impact of the ongoing economic downturn with some strategy adjustments that will not compromise the quality of food and beverage and services,” newly appointed general manager Newman Yen (顏鎮國) told a media briefing.
Yen, 55, recently took the helm at the hotel operations division of Landis Hospitality Group (麗緻餐旅集團), the parent company of the five-star hotel on Taipei’s Minquan E Road.
A 27-year veteran of the industry, Yen has been charged with the ongoing mission to diversify income sources and increase the customer base for the Landis Taipei and Hotel One Taichung.
The hotels aim to boost occupancy by attracting female business travelers and sporting event organizers, as annual trade shows such as Computex Taipei are losing importance, Yen said.
To that end, the Landis Taipei is redecorating rooms to improve their comfort and convenience for female clientele, Yen said, adding that the hotel is also offering special promotions to attract travelers participating in sporting events.
Despite changes in other areas, the hotel remains adamant about providing a fine dining experience at Paris 1930, which has long been touted as Taipei’s top French restaurant by industry guides, food and beverage assistant manager Gary Lo (羅明威) said.
“Profit maximization does not sit atop the list of concerns at Paris 1930, which aims instead to entertain and impress customers with its creative French dishes,” Lo said, adding that is the reason the hotel has given chef Clement Pellerin and his team ample room to design and create a menu based on ingredients he deems are the best fit.
The restaurant yesterday began to offer a new set of menus featuring dishes with asparagus, appetizers and desserts priced at NT$3,800 per person.
Under Pellerin’s stewardship, Paris 1930 has increased its revenue by 10 percent to 20 percent, Landis Taipei said.
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
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”