Greater efforts must be made to appeal to more Western, Japanese and Taiwanese tourists to revive the nation’s waning tourism business, the travel industry said after the number of Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan was found to be much lower than expected.
Statistics from the Sun Moon Lake National Scenic Area Administration Tourism Bureau showed that this summer Sun Moon Lake (日月潭) — one of the most popular tourist destinations in Taiwan — received only 290,000 visitors, or 60,000 less than last summer.
Meanwhile, statistics from the Forestry Bureau showed that 111,300 people had visited Alishan (阿里山) in June and July, 400 more than the number for the same period last year.
While the number of visitors to Alishan held steady, there were no signs of improvement anytime soon, the travel industry said.
Shop owners and hoteliers at both locations said that allowing a greater number of Chinese tourists to come to Taiwan had not resulted in the stellar business opportunities and revenues the government had promised, adding that only one or two travel agencies were willing to collaborate with local hotels on the condition that management agree to slash prices well below par.
For example, Sun Moon Lake’s Eihan Resort began work last year to expand its number of rooms from 66 to 101.
The hotel saw a 60 percent increase in its occupancy rate after the renovations.
The hotel manager, however, said the hotel had had to cut its room rate from NT$4,000 to NT$2,500 to be allowed to deal with travel agencies.
Because of the drop in tourists, the occupancy rate at Hotel Del Lago in June and July fell from 53 percent to 51 percent compared with the same period last year.
The Lalu, the lake’s best-known high-end luxury hotel, reported an occupancy rate between 80 percent and 90 percent, but less than 10 percent were Chinese tourists.
Chen Cheng-hsing (陳正興), the manager of Alisan House, said that most Chinese tourists only had meals at the hotel and did not stay overnight.
His competitor, Liao Ching-tai (廖景泰) of Wenshan Hotel, agreed, saying that most of his overnight guests were local tourists or visitors from Japan and Southeast Asia.
Also See: County official says Beijing to blame for low tourist numbers
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS