Star Travel Corp (燦星旅遊), one of the nation’s leading travel agencies, yesterday temporarily closed five of its outlets in Taipei, saying it is planning a business transformation after years of losses.
Star Travel spokesman Chen Hung-sheng (陳宏勝) told reporters that the slowing economy has had an adverse impact on the domestic tourism sector.
Star Travel has no choice but to start restructuring by optimizing its operations through adjustments of its outlets to meet the challneges of a fast-changing market and stem its losses, Chen said.
Before the closing of the five outlets, including two flagship stores, Star Travel had six stores in the capital and another 43 across the nation.
The Taipei Department of Labor confirmed that the travel agency early this month filed a report that it would lay off 18 employees.
Before the department’s announcement, unconfirmed reports said that Star Travel would lay off 360 employees after four years of losses.
The company reported losses per share of NT$0.42, NT$1.78, NT$3.31 and NT$2.96 in 2015, 2016, 2017 and last year, following earnings per share of NT$0.80 in 2014.
In the first half of this year, Star Travel incurred losses per share of NT$0.95, compared with losses per share of NT$1.18 a year earlier.
Analysts said that Star Travel, which specializes in group travel, has been affected as the nation has attracted more independent travelers in recent years.
Star Travel in March cut its paid-in capital by almost 50 percent to improve its financial condition.
However, analysts said the company still has to downsize by temporarily closing the five stores in Taipei.
Star Travel is a subsidiary of 3C distributor Tsann Kuen Enterprise Co (燦坤).
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