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.
US SANCTIONS: The Taiwan tech giant has ended all shipments to China-based Sophgo Technologies after one of their chips was discovered in a Huawei phone Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) suspended shipments to China-based chip designer Sophgo Technologies Ltd (算能科技) after a chip it made was found on a Huawei Technologies Co (華為) artificial intelligence (AI) processor, according to two people familiar with the matter. Sophgo had ordered chips from TSMC that matched the one found on Huawei’s Ascend 910B, the people said. Huawei is restricted from buying the technology to protect US national security. Reuters could not determine how the chip ended up on the Huawei product. Sophgo said in a statement on its Web site yesterday that it was in compliance with all laws
SPEED OF LIGHT: US lawmakers urged the commerce department to examine the national security threats from China’s development of silicon photonics technology US President Joe Biden’s administration on Monday said it is finalizing rules that would limit US investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology sectors in China that could threaten US national security. The rules, which were proposed in June by the US Department of the Treasury, were directed by an executive order signed by Biden in August last year covering three key sectors: semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies and certain AI systems. The rules are to take effect on Jan. 2 next year and would be overseen by the Treasury’s newly created Office of Global Transactions. The Treasury said the “narrow
TECH TITANS: Nvidia briefly overtook Apple again on Friday after becoming the world’s largest company for a short period in June, as Microsoft fell to third place Nvidia Corp dethroned Apple Inc as the world’s most valuable company on Friday following a record-setting rally in the stock, powered by insatiable demand for its specialized artificial intelligence (AI) chips. Nvidia’s stock market value briefly touched US$3.53 trillion, slightly above Apple’s US$3.52 trillion, London Stock Exchange Group data showed. Nvidia ended the day up 0.8 percent, with a market value of US$3.47 trillion, while Apple’s shares rose 0.4 percent, valuing the iPhone maker at US$3.52 trillion. In June, Nvidia briefly became the world’s most valuable company before it was overtaken by Microsoft Corp and Apple. The tech trio’s market capitalizations have been
SPECIALIZIATION: OpenAI is designing a new type of semiconductor with Broadcom that would run artificial intelligence software and respond to user requests OpenAI is working with Broadcom Inc to develop a new artificial intelligence (AI) chip specifically focused on running AI models after they have been trained, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The AI start-up and chipmaker are also consulting with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest chip contract manufacturer, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. OpenAI has been planning a custom chip and working on such uses for the technology for about a year, but the discussions are still at an early stage, the sources said. OpenAI declined