Despite concerns about the safety of the high speed rail following almost daily problems since its launch last Friday, the nation's toursim sector remains enthusiastic, as the bullet train service has made comfortable, one-day travel in western Taiwan possible.
Tour agencies, amusement parks and hotels are all optimistic about the effects the high speed rail is expected to bring.
The high speed rail shortens travel time between Taipei and Kaohsiung to 90 minutes from the four hours that driving or conventional trains took.
"It will definitely bring positive influences as the new transportation can boost the frequency of tours between the north and south," said Albert Yuan (袁相杰), marketing and public relations manager of Leofoo Village (六福村) amusement park in Hsinchu County.
With revenues of more than NT$800 million (US$24.4 million) last year, Leofoo Village's visitors came mostly from the north and the east. Now the source of visitors should extend to central and southern Taiwan as more convenient travel to the north becomes available, he said.
Together with the expectation that the government will soon relax limits on visitors from China, Yuan was confident that the firm would register a whopping double-digit growth this year to around NT$900 million or more, compared with the usual 5 percent increase over recent years.
Proprietors of tourism spots nationwide are not the only ones rejoicing. Travel service companies are also busy designing tour packages combining bullet train tickets, hotel stays and admission tickets to amusement parks, similar to travel packages that include tour bus, train or airline tickets.
Eztravel.com (
It has designed Web pages detailing information about the high speed rail services, including tips on ticket purchasing and train schedules, as well as two to three-day packages to areas with train stops.
For instance, its two-day tour from Taipei to Kaohsiung, which includes a one-night stay at five-star hotel The Splendor Kaohsiung, will be available at a minimum price of NT$4,500, the Web site said.
"We've got everything ready, we are just waiting for the THSRC to announce its final pricing strategy and train schedules for formal operations," said Carol Keng (
Currently, THSRC is offering 50-percent discounts during the trial run until next Friday, prolonged from the original deadline, which would have been tomorrow.
Keng believes all areas of Taiwan will be benefited by the high speed rail, as people's willingness to travel increases with short times and frequent runs.
Keng added that train travel is already more common in Taiwan than travel by plane, and therefore the new transportation means should gain popularity rapidly.
She said she expected the firm's domestic travel business to shoot up by 50 percent this year for projected revenues of NT$3 billion.
Based on Japan's experience with the Tokaido Shinkansen, the world's first high speed rail, and its economic effects, Taiwan's bullet train is expected to substantially increase the popularity of west-coast tourist spots away from the major cities of Taipei and Kaohsiung, said Hank Huang (黃崇哲), head of the BOT research center of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台經院).
"The new railway will allow foreign tourists and backpackers, especially those from Japan and Hong Kong, to appreciate another side of Taiwan," Huang said.
Novel itineraries might include fishing ports or admiring blooming flowers in Changhua, which should become key attractions for Asian neighbors, he said.
For domestic tourism, impact would be limited, Huang expected. But he foresees increasing hotel traffic as people might opt to spend more time at their destinations, rather than spending more time on actual traveling.
"Travel costs might be higher, but the tour as such will be further enriched," he said.
Department stores and shopping malls, on the other hand, are not expected to gain significantly from the opening of the railway.
With high-scale retail chains set up in almost every city nationwide and little difference between their branches, there is little incentive for shoppers to take the bullet train to visit stores in other cities.
"You've got LV stores in Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung and the Montblanc brand also has 11 outlets nationwide. There's not much disparity," said David Peng (彭振宇), secretary general of the Retailers Association of Chinese Taipei (中華民國百貨協會).
Miramar Entertainment Park (
Miramar already has tour buses ferrying groups of non-Taipei shoppers to its doorstep. This tour pattern, however, is unlikely to be replaced by the pricier high-speed train, Miramar's deputy marketing manager Alex Lu (呂俊昌) said.
"For the retail sector, opening more Chinese tourists to Taiwan will be the concrete, much-needed boost to expand the small domestic market," Peng said.
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