The Grand Hyatt Taipei (台北君悅大飯店) aims to increase its food and beverage sales by 10 percent this year, from NT$1.2 billion (US$40.98 million) last year, supported by its above-par dining facilities, which have drawn a large number of return guests, company officials said yesterday.
The nation’s largest five-star hotel by number of guestrooms has a membership of 7,000, some of whom pay up to 500 visits a year to its eight restaurants that feature Chinese, Japanese, Cantonese and European cuisines, marketing communications manager Paul Ou (歐立偉) said.
“The frequency of visits suggests a high degree of loyalty driven by satisfactory dining experiences and competitive charges,” Ou said.
For an annual membership fee of NT$18,000, Grand Hyatt Taipei members enjoy free meals or discounts of up to 50 percent off regular charges at different restaurants, he said, adding that most members are aged between 40 and 60.
The hotel in Xinyi District (信義) expects food and beverage to generate 50 percent of total revenue this year, compared with 41.75 percent last year, despite growing competition from new players.
Grand Hyatt remains the top choice among foodies and corporate clients, thanks to its convenient location and commitment to culinary excellence, Ou said.
Trade shows, such as the annual Computex Taipei, has lent support to conference guestroom and food demand. The Summer Universiade last year also helped push up the comparison base, Ou said.
All eight restaurants are refining their dining fare not only to retain, but also increase customers ahead of the launch of the first-ever Michelin restaurant guide for Taipei on Wednesday, he said.
The hotel’s buffet facility Cafe (凱菲屋) is the most popular, followed by the Japanese restaurant Irodori (彩日本料理) and the Yun Jin Chinese restaurant (雲錦中餐), he said.
Starting yesterday and through May 4, people who add the hotel’s Line messaging app as a friend may qualify for price discounts for signature dishes at all dining facilities, he said.
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
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
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