Restaurants and hotels are gearing up to grab more of the Christmas spending pie with new menus and promotional campaigns aimed at taking advantage of rising patronage during the season. Some restaurants are offering upscale meals at a cost of more than NT$1,000 (US$32.15) per person — much more than the average meal in Taiwan — in the hope that sales rise between 10 percent and 20 percent from Christmas last year.
Wowprime Corp, a leading restaurant chain which operates more than 13 brands in Taiwan, including Wang Steak, said that it has come up with holiday promotions at several of its restaurants, including Japanese restaurant Tokiya, fusion cuisine chain Chamonix and Famonn Coffee.
Tokiya’s winter menu features special ingredients such as sesame and lily, which are traditionally used to improve health and fight off a bitter winter, and diners who download a coupon from Tokiya’s Web site by Dec. 25 are eligible for a buy three, get one free promotion.
According to Wowprime, Tokiya serves more than 3.39 million customers a year, and more than 40 percent of them come with family members, making a group deal more attractive.
Famonn Coffee, also owned by Wowprime, said it is targeting female customers with new macaroons, and deserts with cranberries and Belgium chocolate.
The Landis Taipei Hotel is offering traditional French cuisine at a premium rate, ranging from NT$1,500 to NT$4,200 per person, in a bid to dominate the upscale market. The hotel expects business to increase by between 10 and 20 percent from last year.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of