Escalating COVID-19 cases are wreaking havoc on the hospitality industry, with occupancy rates in Taipei last week dropping below 20 percent, prompting hotels to roll out cutthroat promotions.
Although health authorities have refrained from raising virus alert levels during this outbreak, people are voluntarily avoiding going out after daily cases reached more than 60,000 last week with no sign of stabilizing.
Popular buffet restaurants Eat Together (饗食天堂), Hilai Restaurant (漢來海港餐廳), Brasserie (柏麗廳) at Regent Taipei (台北晶華酒店) and Recipe (探索廚房) at Le Meridien all suspended afternoon meals this month to reduce their losses.
Photo courtesy of the Feast & Food Gourmet Group
Guestroom staffers have been processing cancelation requests nonstop and might have to introduce unpaid leave if the situation fails to improve soon.
Taiwan is seeking to coexist with COVID-19 like the US, Europe and Southeast Asian countries.
Hotels and restaurants are again bearing the brunt during the transition, as evidenced by sluggish Mother’s Day sales earlier this month, and are expecting sluggish business over the Dragon Boat Festival next month and the summer vacation unless virus infections come under control soon.
Formosa International Hotels Corp (晶華國際酒店集團), My Humble House Group (寒舍集團) and Taoyuan’s Yaward Resort (悅華大酒店) have launched promotions to drive up occupancy rates, while some other hotels said they are encouraging workers to use their annual leave.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group