The Tourism Bureau said it is proposing an amendment to the Act for the Development of Tourism (發展觀光條例) requiring that all international tourist hotels have their services evaluated according to its rating system in a bid to raise hotel service quality nationwide.
Under the current rating system, international tourist hotels can choose whether they want to be evaluated.
If a hotel owner wishes to have their hotel certified as four-star or five-star accommodation, for example, members of the review board evaluate the hotel to ensure it meets the criteria.
However, the proposal to make the evaluation mandatory has met with questions and doubts from hoteliers.
Taiwan Tourist Hotel Association chairman Lai Cheng-i (賴正鎰) said the bureau cannot continue using the same criteria to evaluate international tourist hotels and standard hotels, adding that the rating system needs to undergo some adjustment.
Association board member Chien Rui-chang (簡瑞璋) said that hotels vary in terms of their scale of operations and regulations applicable to them.
He said he does not understand why the hotel industry should be integrated, adding that the evaluation process should be outsourced to the private sector.
Chien said the evaluations are conducted by professors and architects, rather than by people currently working in hotels, so the evaluations lack input from industry experts and the results are not as credible as they could be.
This explains why many hoteliers are not interested in the evaluation, Chien said.
Bureau Deputy Director-General Wayne Liu (劉喜臨) said the amendment would only apply to large international tourist hotels, as well as standard hotels providing services comparable to those of an international tourist hotel.
The amendment would not apply to other types of hotels or hostels, he said, adding that the bureau plans to complete the amendment within six months to one year.
Liu said that the bureau would conduct further research to define more clearly the differences between international tourist hotels, standard tourist hotels and hostels.
The bureau implemented its rating system in 2009.
Tourism Bureau statistics showed that 74 international tourist hotels and 447 standard hotels have been evaluated using its system.
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