Farglory Hotel (遠雄悅來大飯店) and affiliate Farglory Ocean Park (遠雄海洋公園) in Hualien are forecasting a sharp increase in revenue this year as the completion of the Suhua Highway Improvement Project should boost tourism in eastern Taiwan.
The project has cut driving time between Taipei and Hualien by an hour and is expected to increase tourist arrivals by 30 percent to 13 million a year, said Jack Wu (武祥生), new vice chairman at Farglory Recreation and Leisure Business, a unit of Farglory Group (遠雄集團).
The recreation arm is to spend NT$200 million (US$6.68 million) renovating the 18-year-old hotel and the adjacent park in next three to five years to make them more appealing and user-friendly, Wu told a media briefing in Taipei.
A larger crowd should help boost occupancy at Farglory Hotel from 43 percent last year to 60 percent this year, while raising average room rates by NT$1,000 to NT$4,142, hotel general manager Emily Liu (劉惠美) said.
With nearly 400 rooms, the hotel is almost fully booked over the Lunar New Year holiday and is extending promotion offers through the first quarter to ramp up business, Liu said.
Although domestic travelers account for 95 percent of its customers, the hotel is seeking to grow its foreign clientele by 10 percent, as the Hualien County Government is in talks to introduce direct flights from South Korea, Liu said, adding that Hualien is also gaining popularity among Japanese tourists.
Farglory Ocean Park is looking at a 20 percent upturn in tourist visits to 600,000, which would push its revenue by 15 percent to NT$530 million, the park’s general manager Nelson Shen (沈建劭) said.
The 51-hectare facility, known for its dolphin and seal shows, reported a 20 percent in ticket sales last year, after emerging from the blow of a major earthquake in early 2018, Shen said.
The theme park has updated programs at its theater and exhibitions at its aquarium, in addition to allowing guests to play with dolphins to attract customers, Shen said, adding that the benefits of improved transport would be more evident in the summer.
The park plans to sell admission tickets online and install an electronic scan system next month for faster and easier entry for visitors, Shen said.
The two facilities in Hualien represent the beginning of Farglory Group’s interest in the hospitality industry, Wu said.
The conglomerate is about to sign a pact with an international hotel brand to run a new property in Kaohsiung, which might start operations next year, Wu said, declining to give further details.
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
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
‘IMMENSE SWAY’: The top 50 companies, based on market cap, shape everything from technology to consumer trends, advisory firm Visual Capitalist said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) was ranked the 10th-most valuable company globally this year, market information advisory firm Visual Capitalist said. TSMC sat on a market cap of about US$915 billion as of Monday last week, making it the 10th-most valuable company in the world and No. 1 in Asia, the publisher said in its “50 Most Valuable Companies in the World” list. Visual Capitalist described TSMC as the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry operator that rolls out chips for major tech names such as US consumer electronics brand Apple Inc, and artificial intelligence (AI) chip designers Nvidia Corp and Advanced
Pegatron Corp (和碩), an iPhone assembler for Apple Inc, is to spend NT$5.64 billion (US$186.82 million) to acquire HTC Corp’s (宏達電) factories in Taoyuan and invest NT$578.57 million in its India subsidiary to expand manufacturing capacity, after its board approved the plans on Wednesday. The Taoyuan factories would expand production of consumer electronics, and communication and computing devices, while the India investment would boost production of communications devices and possibly automotive electronics later, a Pegatron official told the Taipei Times by telephone yesterday. Pegatron expects to complete the Taoyuan factory transaction in the third quarter, said the official, who declined to be
RSS