In view of security concerns after a series of terrorist attacks in Indonesia and the Philippines, sales of Northeast Asia-bound tours have risen by nearly 20 percent recently, travel professionals said yesterday.
"Customers who originally planned to book Southeast Asia tours have switched to Japan, South Korea or China tours instead," said Yu Fu-yun (余敷雲), vice president of Ten-Hai Travel Services Co (天海旅行社). "Japan is the most popular destination, since it's time to watch maple leaves turning red in that country now."
Only five days after the car-bomb attack on a nightclub in Bali on Oct. 12, the southern city of Zamboanga in the Philippines also reported another bomb attack that left six people dead. With local authorities urging Taiwanese to avoid travelling there, the booking rate for Ten-Hai's Japan tour groups was up about 20 percent last week, while sales of Southeast tours are down more than 30 percent, over the previous week, Yu said.
South Korea and China are attracting tourists as well.
"Our South Korea group tour registration rate rose 15 percent last week over the previous week before," said Andrew Huang (黃旭志), a marketing manager at ezfly.com (易飛網), an online ticketing center. Sales of the company's China-bound group tours also rose 10 percent last week, he said.
But many other travel agencies are on the brink of shutting down their businesses, said Paulina Liu (劉琇燕), an executive at Partner Travel Services (百順旅行社).
She predicts that more than 20 Taiwanese travel agencies that depend solely on Southeast destinations will be out of business by the end of this year.
"We have been banking on Bali and Thailand tourism for years, and our business has been in dire straits after the bomb attacks in Bali," Liu said. "Now we are trying to balance our losses with services on other routes."
Last year, more than 40 percent of the company's sales came from Bali tours. Travel agencies should diversify their tour packages to cover more destinations, Tseng Sheng-hai (曾盛海), chairman of the Taipei Association of Travel Agents, said.
"With the terrorism spreading around the world recently, travel agencies should develop more tour packages to lower risk areas," Tseng said.
To boost sales, companies such as ezfly are now offering European tours at prices comparable to Bali group tours.
"Autumn and winter are always the peak seasons for Southeast Asia tourism and slow for Europe. But this year, with the turbulence in Bali we hope to make a buck on European bargains," Huang said.
Topping the list of ultra-cheap fares -- about 50 percent less than a month ago -- are a seven-day group tour to Paris at NT$19,900 and a eight-day tour of Austria for NT$29,900.
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
TikTok abounds with viral videos accusing prestigious brands of secretly manufacturing luxury goods in China so they can be sold at cut prices. However, while these “revelations” are spurious, behind them lurks a well-oiled machine for selling counterfeit goods that is making the most of the confusion surrounding trade tariffs. Chinese content creators who portray themselves as workers or subcontractors in the luxury goods business claim that Beijing has lifted confidentiality clauses on local subcontractors as a way to respond to the huge hike in customs duties imposed on China by US President Donald Trump. They say this Chinese decision, of which Agence
RSS