Wellspring by Silks (晶泉丰旅) in Yilan County’s Jiaosi Township (礁溪) is reshaping its marketing strategy to focus on females and couples to boost competitiveness as it turns three years old next week.
The new approach is intended to help the boutique brand under the Formosa International Hotels Group (FIH, 晶華酒店集團) to carve out a niche in a town famous for hot springs.
Competition has sharpened over the years, due to improved transport and the entry of new players.
“Change is necessary to stay competitive nowadays,” Wellspring by Silks general manager Cindy Chen (陳惠芳) said.
The township has seen several new tourist hotels in recent years and more plan to join, encouraged by improved infrastructure. The Hsuehshan Tunnel (雪山隧道), Asia’s sixth-longest, cut travel times from Taipei by half to 50 minutes.
Rooms have soared 67 percent since the opening of the 13km tunnel 13 years ago, pushing average occupancy rates among tourist hotels down to 51 percent last year from a peak of 72 percent in 2014, government data showed. Smaller lodging facilities fared worse, with occupancy rates of 40 percent.
Six older facilities exited the market last year, succumbing to intensifying competition, Tourism Bureau statistics showed.
Wellspring by Silks sees a viable business in targeting female travelers who value lifestyle, in contrast with an emphasis on family tourists by well-established Hotel Royal Chiaohsi (礁溪老爺大酒店) and Evergreen Resort Hotel in Jiaosi (長榮鳳凰酒店), as well as Mu Jiaosi Hotel (礁溪寒沐) and Maison de Chine Jiaosi (兆品酒店礁溪), Chen said.
Mu and Maison de Chine pose a particular threat, as both are new and within walking distance of Wellspring by Silks, she said.
The new approach is intended to set the facility of 122 guest rooms apart from its rivals and boost occupancy rates from 60 percent last year to 70 percent this year, Chen said.
Room rates would remain at NT$6,000 per night, as gaining customers is the top priority, Chen 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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six