The Place Taipei (南港老爺行旅), the newest property of the Hotel Royal Group (老爺大酒店集團), yesterday said that it is looking forward to an improvement in the second half of the year, despite an expected plunge in Chinese tourist numbers.
Occupancy rates have averaged 40 percent on daily room rates of NT$4,000 since the grand opening in March, director of operations Roni Hung (洪郁甄) said.
That is significantly behind its target of 70 percent for the first year, but the commencement of several trade shows in the following months should lift occupancy rates, Hung said.
Located in Nangang Software Park (南港軟體園區) within walking distance of the Nangang Exhibition Center and the Nangang MRT Station, the facility of 179 guestrooms will have little difficulty finding guests as the area grows into the city’s east gateway in a few years’ time, she said.
The Hotel Royal Group, which operates 10 other facilities under the brands Hotel Royal and Royal Inn in Taiwan and four additional properties abroad, is positive about the long-term development in Nangang, she added.
International property consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle Inc (JLL) forecast a massive corporate relocation to Nangang District (南港), where more than 150,000 ping (495,800m2) of new office space would become available between next year and 2024.
The relocation is inevitable, as upscale office buildings in Xinyi (信義) and Neihu (內湖) districts are almost fully occupied and there is little land available for new construction projects, JLL said.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) East Gateway Initiative — featuring a biotechnology park in Nangang with technical support from Academia Sinica — would lend support to the hotel chain’s rosy outlook, Hung said.
Beijing’s recent ban on individual tourist visits to Taiwan would not affect The Place given its focus on business travelers, she said.
Domestic guests are its largest source of customers, followed by European and American businesspeople, she said.
The facility recently updated the menu at its restaurant Soft Kitchen and is considering adding banquet space to shore up food and beverage sales, communications official Martin Wei (韋孝昀) said, adding that food and beverages generate 30 percent of overall revenue.
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
The domestic unit of the Chinese-owned, Dutch-headquartered chipmaker Nexperia BV will soon be able to produce semiconductors locally within China, according to two company sources. Nexperia is at the center of a global tug-of-war over critical semiconductor technology, with a Dutch court in February ordering a probe into alleged mismanagement at the company. The geopolitical tussle has disrupted supply chains, with some carmakers reportedly forced to cut production due to chip shortages. Local production would allow Nexperia’s domestic arm, Nexperia Semiconductors (China) Ltd (安世半導體中國), to bypass restrictions in place since October on the supply of silicon wafers — etched with tiny components to
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday received government approval to deploy its advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process at its second fab currently under construction in Japan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a news release. The ministry green-lit the plan for the facility in Kumamoto, which is scheduled to start installing equipment and come online in 2028 with a monthly production capacity of 15,000 12-inch wafers, the ministry said. The Department of Investment Review in June 2024 authorized a US$5.26 billion investment for the facility, slated to manufacture 6- to 12nm chips, significantly less advanced than 3nm process. At a meeting with
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
RSS