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.
Merida Industry Co (美利達) has seen signs of recovery in the US and European markets this year, as customers are gradually depleting their inventories, the bicycle maker told shareholders yesterday. Given robust growth in new orders at its Taiwanese factory, coupled with its subsidiaries’ improving performance, Merida said it remains confident about the bicycle market’s prospects and expects steady growth in its core business this year. CAUTION ON CHINA However, the company must handle the Chinese market with great caution, as sales of road bikes there have declined significantly, affecting its revenue and profitability, Merida said in a statement, adding that it would
RISING: Strong exports, and life insurance companies’ efforts to manage currency risks indicates the NT dollar would eventually pass the 29 level, an expert said The New Taiwan dollar yesterday rallied to its strongest in three years amid inflows to the nation’s stock market and broad-based weakness in the US dollar. Exporter sales of the US currency and a repatriation of funds from local asset managers also played a role, said two traders, who asked not to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly. State-owned banks were seen buying the greenback yesterday, but only at a moderate scale, the traders said. The local currency gained 0.77 percent, outperforming almost all of its Asian peers, to close at NT$29.165 per US dollar in Taipei trading yesterday. The
RECORD LOW: Global firms’ increased inventories, tariff disputes not yet impacting Taiwan and new graduates not yet entering the market contributed to the decrease Taiwan’s unemployment rate last month dropped to 3.3 percent, the lowest for the month in 25 years, as strong exports and resilient domestic demand boosted hiring across various sectors, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. After seasonal adjustments, the jobless rate eased to 3.34 percent, the best performance in 24 years, suggesting a stable labor market, although a mild increase is expected with the graduation season from this month through August, the statistics agency said. “Potential shocks from tariff disputes between the US and China have yet to affect Taiwan’s job market,” Census Department Deputy Director Tan Wen-ling
UNCERTAINTIES: The world’s biggest chip packager and tester is closely monitoring the US’ tariff policy before making any capacity adjustments, a company official said ASE Technology Holding Inc (日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packager and tester, yesterday said it is cautiously evaluating new advanced packaging capacity expansion in the US in response to customers’ requests amid uncertainties about the US’ tariff policy. Compared with its semiconductor peers, ASE has been relatively prudent about building new capacity in the US. However, the company is adjusting its global manufacturing footprint expansion after US President Donald Trump announced “reciprocal” tariffs in April, and new import duties targeting semiconductors and other items that are vital to national security. ASE subsidiary Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密) is participating in Nvidia
RSS