InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (IHG) is aiming to open more properties in Taiwan as part of a plan to augment its presence in Asia, attracted by the region’s fast-growing economies and wealth.
The British hospitality company, which operates 5,603 hotels under 15 brands around the world, is to open Hotel Indigo Taipei in Dazhi (大直) area later this year and has inked a pact to bring the InterContinental Hotels & Resorts brand to Taichung next year or in 2021.
“While the US remains our largest market, the Greater China area has seen the fastest growth by number of outlets in recent years,” IHG senior marketing director Ada Gao (高原) told a media gathering in Tainan on Friday last week.
The trend falls in line with the group’s aim to take advantage of the region’s rising wealth and demand for international hotel brands, Gao said.
The strategy led last year to the purchase of a majority stake in Regent Hotels & Resorts from Taipei-based Formosa International Hotels Corp (晶華麗晶酒店集團) whereby IHG would run all Regent properties except the Regent Taipei.
IHG also manages the Kimpton Daan Hotel, Hotel Indigo Hsinchu, Hotel Indigo Kaohsiung, Crown Plaza Tainan, Holiday Inn Express Taoyuan and Holiday Inn Express Taichung, Gao said.
The portfolio allows the group to cater to both leisure and business travelers of different budgets and with different preferences, she said.
Hotel Indigo Taipei, which is to be on the fourth to 10th floors of a mixed-use building that is also to feature stores and a food court on the lower floors, could begin operations in the fourth quarter of this year following five years of construction and preparation work, she added.
Meanwhile, Hotel Indigo Hsinchu general manager Kenneth Ting (丁永興) said his hotel has since its opening in September last year been wooing technology-savvy travelers with its 140 spacious guest rooms and the exotic menus at its restaurant, lounge and cafe.
The hotel near the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區) is to invite award-winning chef Nikolas Ramirez to cook at its Char Bar & Bistro next month to help claim the mantle of the best restaurant in Hsinchu, Ting said.
Additionally, IHG has signed an agreement with Taipei-based developer CMP Group (勤美集團) to launch its first InterContinental Hotels & Resorts property in Taichung next year or in 2021, Gao said.
“The stable increase in the number of tourists lends support to the group’s expansion in Taiwan,” she said.
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has secured three construction permits for its plan to build a state-of-the-art A14 wafer fab in Taichung, and is likely to start construction soon, the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau said yesterday. Speaking with CNA, Wang Chun-chieh (王俊傑), deputy director general of the science park bureau, said the world’s largest contract chipmaker has received three construction permits — one to build a fab to roll out sophisticated chips, another to build a central utility plant to provide water and electricity for the facility and the other to build three office buildings. With the three permits, TSMC
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
RSS