Efforts by the Tourism Bureau to launch a new hotel rating system has met a lukewarm response, with only 53 of the more than 2,700 hotels in the country applying for evaluation, bureau statistics showed yesterday.
The bureau began encouraging hoteliers to participate in its evaluation program last year. As a sweetener, the bureau said it would cover all expenses related to the evaluation. This offer will expire in September next year.
In the first stage, hotels are evaluated based on the quality of their infrastructure and are given a one-to-three-star rating.
Only hotels that receive a three-star rating can join the next stage of evaluation, which focuses on quality of service. This evaluation serves as a basis for determining whether a hotel receives a four or five-star rating.
Tourism Bureau Director-General Janice Lai (賴瑟珍) said the bureau studied the rating systems used by the American Automobile Association and the Leading Hotels of the World when setting its own benchmarks.
Lai said she hoped more hotels would participate in the evaluation program.
"If customers choose an international hotel like the Grand Hyatt, they already know the quality of the service they are going to receive," Lai said. "Our focus is on local hotels that need to build a reputation so that customers will feel at ease when they make a reservation online."
A first attempt to create a rating system for hotels was made in 1983. Rather than stars, the hotels were awarded plum blossoms to indicate the level of services they provided.
The system failed, however, as foreign visitors did not know what the different numbers of plum blossoms stood for. Accusations of bias and conflict of interest were also leveled at the system after it was discovered that some of the judges were hoteliers.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
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