Howard Hotel Group (福華飯店集團), the nation’s largest hospitality company by number of rooms, on Monday signed an agreement with National Taiwan University’s College of BioResources and Agriculture to jointly operate a hotel in the Xitou Nature Education Area (溪頭自然教育園區) in Nantou County’s Lugu Township (鹿谷).
The management contract adds one more property, Howard Resort Xitou (溪頭福華渡假飯店), to the portfolio run by Howard after it beat two competitors to win the 12-year contract that could be extended by another 10 years if the hotel’s financial performance meets expectations, the Taipei-based company said.
The group plans to spend NT$100 million (US$3.51 million) in the next two years renovating the property of 211 guest rooms in four buildings, Howard Hotel chairman Liao Po-his (廖伯熙) said, adding that the group would be aiming to achieve annual revenue of NT$180 million to NT$190 million in 2023.
Liao said that he is upbeat about the new venture, as the education area is one of the nation’s most popular tourist attractions, drawing 279,311 visitors in July this year, a record high since it opened 50 years ago.
The strong showing came partly because the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted people to assign more importance to their health and well-being, a trend that would benefit the Howard Resort Xintou, he said.
The property, run under the Leader Hotel (立德) brand between 2004 and 2018, has an average room rate of NT$2,500 per night, and Howard Hotel would be seeking to raise that to NT$3,000, he added.
That goal is achievable given its location in a national forest park served by the Taiwan Shuttle Bus Service (台灣好行), as well as local buses from Taichung High Speed Rail Station, Howard Hotel chief executive officer Liao Shiew-mei (廖秀梅) said, adding that it would make the hotel an attractive destination for families and students, as well as for corporate meetings.
Room rates would range from NT$2,000 to NT$10,000 per night following the renovations, Liao Shiew-mei said, adding that the hotel would feature the company’s Shabu Shabu brand, Smile One, as well as Chinese and buffet restaurants.
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
STILL LOADED: Last year’s richest person, Quanta Computer Inc chairman Barry Lam, dropped to second place despite an 8 percent increase in his wealth to US$12.6 billion Staff writer, with CNA Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠) and Richard Tsai (蔡明興), the brothers who run Fubon Group (富邦集團), topped the Forbes list of Taiwan’s 50 richest people this year, released on Wednesday in New York. The magazine said that a stronger New Taiwan dollar pushed the combined wealth of Taiwan’s 50 richest people up 13 percent, from US$174 billion to US$197 billion, with 36 of the people on the list seeing their wealth increase. That came as Taiwan’s economy grew 4.6 percent last year, its fastest pace in three years, driven by the strong performance of the semiconductor industry, the magazine said. The Tsai
RSS