The hotel industry, already suffering from a fall-off in bookings, is expected to be further crippled after the government announced a two-week ban on travelers from Hong Kong and China as a result of the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
"The decision may cause our business to go from bad to worse," Chen Lieh (陳烈), general secretary of the International Tourist Hotel Association of Taipei (台北觀光旅館公會) said yesterday.
PHOTO: AFP
Hotel occupancy in Taipei, averaging 40 percent in early April, reportedly slipped to 10 percent last week after Westerners and Japanese cancelled trips because of SARS fears.
Chen made the remarks after Premier Yu Shyi-kun announced an immediate halt in issuing visas to people from SARS affected areas, including Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Vietnam and Toronto.
The decision is expected to impact three-star hotels in Taipei, which are popular with visitors from Hong Kong and China.
"Of course our business will be hurt following the decision," said an official surnamed Chiang at the Cosmos Hotel (
Nearly 80 percent of the hotel's customers are from Hong Kong and China.
Chinese visitor numbers had already plummeted ahead of the announcement, he said.
Only one group tour from China arrived at the hotel yesterday, while five to six groups checked in daily in April last year, Chiang said.
After the start of the SARS outbreak in Taiwan in late March, five-star hotels began seeing arrivals of their key clientele -- Americans and Europeans -- nose-dive.
In response, hotels slashed prices on room rates.
The Westin Taipei, Grand Hyatt Taipei and other first-tier hotels reduced standard room prices by more than 50 percent in an effort to attract business from local residents.
While most hotel promotions were scheduled to run through the end of April, Chen predicts the price cuts will continue.
"We originally expected that the spread of the outbreak would be controlled and hotel business would be better in May," Chen said. "But, this now doesn't seem to be the case," she said.
Taiwan reported its first SARS-related death yesterday.
Many hotels may continue the promotions, but "for the long-term, in order to survive we will have to seek help," Chen said.
Hoteliers are considering asking the government for financial assistance such as short-term loans.
"Next week we may make an appeal to the government through the Tourism Bureau," Chen said.
Meanwhile, a major trade show organizer said yesterday that the ban's impact on attendance should be limited.
"Foreign buyers from the US and Europe are the nation's major clients, while few visitors come from across the Strait," said Chao Yung-chuan (
Last year, Chinese comprised only 590 out of a total of 20,000 foreign buyers at the nation's top trade show, Computex Taipei, he said.
This year the show runs from June 2 to June 6.
A recent survey of potential Computex visitors showed that nearly 20 percent will skip this year's show because of SARS fears. Another poll of the same group is expected to come out in the next few days.
If the response is gloomy, the council may postpone the show, Chao said.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
RSS