The average occupancy rate at the nation's tourist hotels for the first six months was 65.87 percent, down 3.15 percent from the previous year, while the average price rose 3.91 percent to NT$3,246 (US$99) per day, a Tourism Bureau official said on Friday.
Quoting bureau statistics released on Thursday, the official said the average occupancy rate of international tourist hotels was 67.03 percent, down 3.34 percent from the same period last year. The average occupancy rate of ordinary tourist hotels, meanwhile, was 59.87 percent, down 1.39 percent.
The official said the summer peak travel season had not revived the low hotel occupancy rates, adding that in some areas the average occupancy rate last month had been as low as 50 percent of that of last year.
The average room rate for international tourist hotels was NT$3,422, an increase of NT$159, while that for ordinary tourist hotels was up NT$23 to NT$2,224, the official said.
Average occupancy rates for tourist hotels in the Taichung area dropped 14.76 percent. Among these, the occupancy rate at international tourist hotels decreased 18.11 percent, while that for ordinary tourist hotels increased 53.1 percent. Average room prices for the area's international hotels dropped 3 percent, while those for ordinary hotels decreased 25 percent, contributing to the increase in the occupancy rate, the official said.
The Miramar Garden Taipei hotel had the highest occupancy rate in Taipei City, at 91.64 percent, followed by the city's Cosmos Hotel and Kilin Hotel, the official said.
The Monarch Plaza Hotel in Taoyuan County enjoyed the nation's highest occupancy rate at 93.73, while the Parkview Hotel in Hualien County had an occupancy rate of only 59.53 percent, the highest rate in that area.
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry