Sat, Dec 25, 1999 page17

• Christmas is big business for Taiwan

  SALES Hotels, retailers and restaurants are all getting into the yuletide spirit, with some saying the traditionally Western holiday is nearly as big as Chinese New Year

  • By Tu Po-heng / STAFF REPORTER
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  For the past few months, retailers around the world have been busy preparing for this holiday season, sprucing up stores with Christmas displays and marking down items in hopes of attracting customers.

  Taiwan -- as Christmas decor-ations common to many department stores suggest -- was no exception this year.

  In fact, some retailers even say the Christmas holiday is as vital to sales as Taiwan's major annual celebration -- Chinese New Year.

  

  An MRT employee dressed in a Santa suit hails the pre-Christmas opening of the Panchiao-Nankang line as sparks from construction work rain down in the background. The Christmas holiday has become a popular event for many local retailers and businesses, who use the event as an opportunity to promote sales.

  PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES

  "Christmas is an important event for the greeting card business," said Lee Pao-ching (李寶琴), assistant manager of the purchasing department at Kingstone Book Store (金石堂書局). "It's as important as Chinese Lunar New Year."

  According to Kingstone, nearly 50 percent of Taiwan's annual greeting card sales, or nearly NT$1 billion, comes from Christmas-related purchases.

  But there are slight differences between holiday buying habits in Taiwan and Western countries.

  For example, students in Taiwan are the biggest buyers of Christmas cards, Lee said, while most companies prefer to send greeting cards for Chinese New Year.

  Because Christmas cards play an important role in the industry, many card companies are scrambling to improve sales performances by offering a wider range of cards.

  One company recently introduced a limited quantity of condom Christmas cards, which feature the contraceptive sealed inside.

  Kingstone has launched a Christmas card set that includes small, useful gifts -- a Kingstone VIP card, a package worth 60 minutes of Internet use or a NT$40 IC phone card. Customers choose which gift to attach to their cards.

  In addition to the greeting card industry, restaurants are another major beneficiary of the Christmas holiday in Taiwan.

  Anna Chen (陳賢淑), spokeswoman for the Lai Lai Sheraton Hotel Taipei (來來大飯店), said banquet sales brought in more than NT$10 million in earnings last year during the Christmas holiday period between Dec. 23 and Jan. 1.

  "This year, we expect earnings to remain at last year's level or be even better," Chen said, "as Christmas this year falls on Saturday and that will give a boost to consumption sentiment."

  Chen said that the Lai Lai's restaurant would have between an 80 percent to 90 percent booking rate during the holiday.

  The hotel's holiday restaurant business also means higher lodging receipts.

  The Lai Lai, for example, offers a Christmas package, whereby guests may stay at the hotel for NT$2,999 a night between Dec. 16 and Jan. 3.

  The Grand Hotel (圓山大飯店) said its Western cuisine restaurants had been fully booked yesterday and today. Even its Chinese cuisine restaurant has nearly 35 percent of its tables booked so far.

  A Grand Hotel official said the gap in the booking rates reflects the perception by Chinese that Christmas is a Western holiday. "It's just like how Chinese people prefer Chinese cuisine to Western meals for Chinese New Year Eve," the official said.

  The official also said there is a cultural difference between when to have Christmas dinner.

  Westerners often eat their Christmas dinner around noon Christmas day, while Taiwanese move the dinner forward to Christmas Eve.

  "It's a cultural difference because Christmas is not an official holiday in Taiwan," he said. "People usually have to work on Dec. 25, and therefore it's more convenient for them to have a Christmas dinner on Dec. 24."

  Besides holiday meals and greeting cards, the biggest Christmas tradition to be adopted by Taiwanese is the unwrapping of toys brought by Santa Claus.

  Scott Chen (陳文光), general manager of Toys "R" Us in Taiwan, said sales between December and February account for between 30 percent and 40 percent of annual revenues.

  But this year, the 921 earthquake weakened demand for Christmas party decorations, Chen said. "The sale of party decorations dropped by nearly 40 percent from last year, as many schools canceled Christmas parties."

  On the brighter side, gift sales are expected to increase by 20 to 30 percent this year.

  "More and more people in Taiwan have adopted the Western custom of giving presents at Christmas," Chen said, adding that Toys "R" Us had launched a series of dolls, cartoon toys and millennium products designed to attract collectors and adults.

  But while Christmas may fuel toy buying, the holiday doesn't translate into higher sales for all retailers.

  "One explanation is that the long Chinese New Year holiday will arrive soon after Christmas -- so people here don't feel up to the holiday very much," Chen said.

  Other retailers agreed.

  Representatives for department and home furnishing stores say they don't include Christmas as a big event in their sales campaigns.

  "Christmas is just another holiday that falls between the annual sales in November and Chinese New Year," an official at SOGO department store said.

  Sandy Hsu (許貝琪), marketing executive at home furnishings store IKEA, also said her company doesn't run any special campaign to boost Christmas sales.

  "However, customers coming to our stores can still enjoy a Christmas atmosphere because we will offer Christmas meals at a very good value between Dec. 1 and Dec. 31."
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