The Okura Prestige Taipei (大倉九和), the newest addition to the Tokyo-based international luxury hotel group Okura Hotels & Resorts, yesterday celebrated its official entry into the Taiwanese market.
With 18 stories above ground and seven underground and 208 guestrooms with Asian and Western decor and modern amenities, the hotel hopes to take advantage of Taiwan’s thriving tourism market. It is located in Taipei’s bustling Zhongshan District (中山), a place closely connected to Japan’s presence in Taiwan.
VITAL MARKET
The hotel group is rapidly expanding overseas and Taiwan is an important market for the group, given the rapid increase in Japanese tourists, Japanese general manager Shinji Umehara said.
Bilateral travel between Taiwan and Japan is expected to reach 3 million trips this year, jumping 23 percent from last year, Umehara said, adding that figures from last year rose 20 percent from a year earlier.
Japan is the second-largest source of foreign tourists to Taiwan after China, with the number of visitors gradually recovering to the levels before the earthquake on March 11 last year, he said.
The aviation agreement between the two countries last year to lift restrictions on the number of carriers allowed to offer scheduled passenger services will make bilateral business and tourist travel easier and more frequent, Umehara said.
Umehara expects the occupancy rate at the Okura Prestige Taipei to reach 65 percent to 70 percent, with room rates averaging NT$5,500 and NT$6,000.
He expects Japanese travelers to account for 70 percent of the clientele, while European, Taiwanese and guests from other Asian countries are expected to account for another 10 percent each.
Food and beverages are expected to generate 40 percent of the hotel’s revenue and hotel rooms another 60 percent, he said.
The hotel offers three dining options, including Okura’s signature Japanese restaurant “Yamazato” and Cantonese restaurant “Toh-Ka-Lin.” The hotel also features two full bars — one in the lobby and the other next to the rooftop swimming pool.
BENEFICIAL
The Ambassador Hotel (國賓大飯店) and the Regent Taipei (晶華) welcomed the new entrant, saying competition is beneficial to the industry.
Ambassador vice president and head of financial department Bill Chen (陳榮輝) said the presence of Okura Prestige might attract more visitors to Taiwan and lift the sector’s overall room rates, as the entry of W Hotel did last year.
The Regent Taipei voiced similar views, saying the hotel also benefited from increased competition in recent years.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
CUSTOMERS’ BURDEN: TSMC already has operations in the US and is a foundry, so any tariff increase would mostly affect US customers, not the company, the minister said Taiwanese manufacturers are “not afraid” of US tariffs, but are concerned about being affected more heavily than regional economic competitors Japan and South Korea, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said. “Taiwan has many advantages that other countries do not have, the most notable of which is its semiconductor ecosystem,” Kuo said. The US “must rely on Taiwan” to boost its microchip manufacturing capacities, Kuo said in an interview ahead of his one-year anniversary in office tomorrow. Taiwan has submitted a position paper under Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act to explain the “complementary relationship” between Taiwan and the US
RSS