Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Chien-yu (陳建宇) yesterday said his ministry would consider ways of promoting Taiwan as a luxury shopping destination, following the opening of the seventh upscale department store in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義).
The Breeze Center shopping mall, which opened on Thursday, is the latest addition to a cluster of high-end department stores within a 400m radius of Taipei 101, in a district that has become known as the Taipei 101 area.
Taipei 101 houses several luxury brands and is in close competition with the nearby Shin Kong Mitsukoshi, Hankyu, Neo 19, AIT 4 Fun and Bellavita department stores.
The Xinyi Breeze Center attracted about 30,000 people and generated revenue of about NT$80 million (US$2.44 million) on its opening day last week, according to the Breeze Group.
The high-end shopping district has attracted the attention of the European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan (ECCT), which suggested in its 2016 Position Papers that the government promote Taiwan as a luxury shopping destination.
“The attractiveness of Taiwan’s luxury shopping segment has continued to increase thanks to the development of major international high-end malls and department stores featuring luxury brands, combined with high-end hotels and fine dining experiences,” the European Chamber said.
However, an integrated government plan is needed to encourage further investment in hospitality facilities alongside the shopping malls, the chamber said.
It said the marketing of such facilities is crucial in light of competition with other luxury shopping destinations, such as Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Singapore, which are far ahead in terms of the high standard hospitality facilities they offer.
“We are concerned about the lack of focus on the assets of Taiwan as a luxury shopping destination,” the European Chamber said, adding that the tourism marketing is focused largely on the nation’s scenery, culture, traditions, street food and other local cuisine.
It recommended that Taiwan increase direct promotion of its luxury shopping attractions by means of TV reports, public-relations campaigns, and editorials in tourism and airline media publications.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) supported the ECCT’s recommendations, calling on the Tourism Bureau to work with the department store sector to promote Taiwan’s attractions.
In response, Chen said he held the same view and that his ministry would consider ways of implementing such promotions.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater