More hotels are to open across the nation in the second half of this year, unfazed by an increasingly crowded sector and stagnant tourist numbers.
Hotel operator L’Hotel de Chine Group (LDC, 雲朗觀光) is to launch its 11th property, Maison de Chine Jiaosi (兆品酒店礁溪), in the hot spring township of Yilan County today to take advantage of the summer vacation.
Summer is the high sales season for the hospitality and leisure industry when hotels, theme parks and other recreational facilities offer discount packages to court families and students from Taiwan and around the world.
Maison de Chine is offering 173 guestrooms priced at NT$3,899 (US$128) per night from tomorrow to the end of October, communications official Phoebe Liao (廖瑋婷) said by telephone.
The daily charge would be raised to NT$5,500 afterward, Liao said, ranking the hotel as middle-priced.
The township has seen the opening of Hotel Valletta (中天溫泉渡假飯店), Yamagata Kaku Hotel & Spa (山形閣) and Kilin Jiaoxi (礁溪麒麟大飯店) in the past year.
Maison de Chine aims for an occupancy rate of 50 percent this year, with only 70 rooms available ahead of the grand opening in the fourth quarter, Liao said.
“We prefer to be conservative about business goals in light of the sharp competition in the vicinity,” Liao said.
Maison de Chine is within walking distance of several luxury resorts in the township, including the Mu Jiaosi Hotel (礁溪寒沐), Evergreen Resort Hotel in Jiaosi (長榮鳳凰酒店), Wellspring By Silks (晶泉丰旅) and the Hotel Royal Jiaosi (礁溪老爺大酒店).
Maison de Chine has the blessing of being right next to Tangwei Brook Park (湯圍溝公園) at more affordable room rates than well-established brands, Liao said.
Meanwhile, Taichung-based developer Da Yi Construction and Development Co (大毅建設) has partnered with Hotel Royal Group (老爺酒店集團) to open a new hotel, The Place Taichung (台中大毅老爺行旅).
The two companies spent NT$900 million on the property, which is to offer 170 guestrooms in Taichung’s Calligraphy Greenway (草悟道), starting from Sunday.
Leefang Group (李方酒店管理集團), which owns Hotel Indigo Kaohsiung (英迪格酒店), Royal Seasons Hotel, Airline Inn (頭等艙酒店) and Space Inn (太空艙旅舍), is soon to launch a hotel in the area.
In New Taipei City, Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc is to open a 400-room hotel in September in the same complex as Caesar Park Banciao (板橋凱薩飯店), as the US hotelier returns to Taiwan after a 14-year hiatus, communication officials said yesterday.
Hilton was invited to return by Caesar Park Hotels and Resorts (凱撒飯店連鎖), which itself is to open a new hotel under the Just Palace (凱旋酒店) brand in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) in the fourth quarter, the officials said, adding that the group aims to be the largest in Taiwan.
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],”