Fri, May 29, 2020 page2

• Virus Outbreak: Five-star hotel did not apply for aid: official

  • By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter
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  The Mandarin Oriental Taipei has not applied to the Tourism Bureau for financial relief, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday, adding that his ministry would look into the hotel’s plight and offer assistance if necessary.

  The five-star hotel, part of Hong Kong-based Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, on Wednesday announced that next month it would suspend its guestroom operations and lay off related staff, but that its restaurants would remain open.

  The Taipei Department of Labor yesterday said the hotel is scheduled to lay off 212 employees on Sunday next week.

  

  The Mandarin Oriental Taipei is pictured in Taipei on July 17, 2014, after opening on May 18 that year.

  Photo: Chen Kuan-pei, Taipei Times

  Prior to the announcement, the hotel had informed the department that it had laid off 39 employees.

  The dismissals meet the standards for a large-scale layoff, meaning the workers would be protected under the Act for Worker Protection of Mass Redundancy (大量解僱勞工保護法), the department said.

  The nation’s hoteliers have been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and have different strategies to weather the financial crisis, Lin said in response to media queries about the hotel’s financial predicament.

  Some five-star hotels, such as Regent Taipei, have sought to increase their occupancy rate by targeting domestic tourists, as the nation has restricted entry to foreigners, while others, like Mandarin Oriental Taipei, have chosen to close rooms and lay off workers.

  The Ministry of Labor has intervened to protect Mandarin Oriental Taipei’s employees, Lin said.

  The Tourism Bureau has prepared bailout funds for hoteliers, but Mandarin Oriental Taipei has not applied, Lin said, adding that the hotel’s management likely thought that there would not be a significant increase in foreign visitor numbers in the short term.

  The transportation ministry has projected that border restrictions would remain in place for most of the rest of the year, Lin said, adding that it is focusing on expanding domestic tourism by promoting “disease prevention tours.”

  “We hope that participants in the first phase of disease prevention tours, who are travel industry representatives, would set an example for how the tours should be conducted and their feedback would help enhance the quality of domestic tours,” Lin said.

  “For the second phase starting on July 1, which would include subsidies for individual travelers and groups on domestic tours, we will review our experience and ensure that our subsidy program covers the various aspects of the tourism industry,” he said.

  Combined “with the distribution of stimulus coupons by the Executive Yuan, we hope to multiply the effects of the tours to boost the domestic tourism market,” he added.

  Asked if the transportation ministry was concerned about more hotels facing financial difficulties or shutting down in the near term, Lin said that the government has offered funds to help tourism operators affected by the pandemic.

  However, in the long run, they would need to adjust their business models to differentiate themselves from the competition, he said.

  “Every business has its strategy to cope with competition. Some choose to upgrade their business models, while others decide to withdraw from the market. We respect the market mechanism, but we want to mitigate the effects caused by unemployment,” Lin said.
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