Holiday Garden Hotel (華園飯店), the nation’s first international tourist hotel, is to close one of its outlets next month, succumbing to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The hospitality group, which owns two properties in Kaohsiung and five others in California, announced on its Web site on Thursday evening that it is to shutter the outlet near Liuhe Night Market (六合夜市) on Aug. 31.
The closure will not affect the property near the Taroko Park Shopping Center, which has been turned into a quarantine hotel.
“Following a review of our portfolio and development strategy, we have decided to end the operation of Holiday Garden Hotel Liuhe,” the group said, asking people to patronize its Taroko outlet instead.
The company on July 7 sold the property near the night market to Yong Shou Investment Co (永碩投資), the main stakeholder of Yong Hsin Construction Co (永信建設), for NT$2.7 billion (US$96.41 million), yielding it a net profit of NT$1.9 billion, or earnings of NT$17.21 per share.
Occupancy rates at Holiday Garden averaged 27.95 percent in the first quarter, with the daily room rate averaging NT$1,734, Bureau of Tourism data showed.
Revenue was NT$23.54 million, down 43 percent from a year earlier, company data showed.
Holiday Garden’s performance, the worst among 11 peers in Kaohsiung, deteriorated further after authorities raised the COVID-19 alert to level 3 in May, driving domestic tourism to a sudden halt.
Since its founding 63 years ago, Holiday Garden Liuhe has been a popular meeting place for socialites and celebrities. The hotel’s founder, Chen Zhi-pei (陳植佩), built the property of 270 guest rooms to support the government’s Invest Taiwan policy targeting overseas Chinese.
In 1973, Holiday Garden briefly joined the Holiday Inn chain to boost its business, but ended the partnership later.
The company said it remains upbeat about the hospitality industry at home and abroad, and would rebound after the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company reported revenue of NT$741 million last year and losses of NT$2.45 per share, widening from losses of NT$0.04 per share in 2019. Strict border controls have weighed on the earnings of hotels reliant on foreign tourists.
Holiday Garden shares slid 0.88 percent to close at NT$28 in Taipei trading yesterday, underperforming the main board’s 0.77 percent decline, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
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