“Quarantine hotels” being used for arrivals from overseas undergoing mandatory 14-day self-isolation have experienced an upsurge in room reservations as students studying overseas have started returning to Taiwan for the summer.
Occupancy rates at quarantine hotels this month are at about 55 percent nationwide, while they are at about 70 percent in Taipei, Tourism Bureau data showed.
The Central Epidemic Command Center requires arrivals from overseas to self-isolate for 14 days due to the global COVID-19 pandemic and the Tourism Bureau has encouraged hotels to provide this service for Taiwanese returnees and foreign visitors.
About 150 hotels and lodging houses with a total of about 9,500 rooms began accommodating people self-isolating in March, with the occupancy rate rising from about 30 percent in April to about 55 percent this month.
Ministry of Transportation and Communications officials said that the occupancy rate for hotels in Taipei is about 70 percent, higher than other cities and counties, because it is easier for those returning to reserve rooms online in the capital.
Hotels in New Taipei City and elsewhere only accept reservations by telephone or online links, officials said, and many people feel that this is inconvenient and they choose to reserve a hotel in the capital instead.
Information and transparency about quarantine hotels varies widely, with the Taipei City Government providing an online list of 35 hotels, while other city governments do not have such a list.
Employees at Just Sleep Taipei Linsen Hotel (捷絲旅林森館) said that room reservations picked up as more Taiwanese started returning from overseas last month, while Taiwanese studying overseas started to return this month.
They expect the occupancy rate to go up to 95 percent be the end of this month, as it was at more than 80 percent in May and last month.
Hanns House (瀚寓酒店) in Taipei was the first hotel to advertise a self-isolation service.
“At the start, we had large numbers of overseas students returning to Taiwan,” hotel employees said. “We were full for most of March and since then have maintained a 50 percent occupancy rate.”
“After the regulations for business visitors entering Taiwan were loosened last month, and now that students are returning for the summer, we now have an occupancy rate of about 90 percent,” they said.
The Grand Hotel Taipei on Saturday confirmed that its information system had been illegally accessed and expressed its deepest apologies for the concern it has caused its customers, adding that the issue is being investigated by the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau. The hotel said that on Tuesday last week, it had discovered an external illegal intrusion into its information system. An initial digital forensic investigation confirmed that parts of the system had been accessed, it said, adding that the possibility that some customer data were stolen and leaked could not be ruled out. The actual scope and content of the affected data
DO THEY BITE IT? Cats have better memories than people might think, but their motivation is based entirely around the chance of getting fed Cats can remember the identity of the people who fed them the day before, Taipei-based veterinarians said on Friday, debunking a popular myth that cats have a short memory. If a stray does not recognize the person who fed them the previous day, it is likely because they are not carrying food and the cat has no reason to recognize them, said Wu Chou Animal Hospital head Chen Chen-huan (陳震寰). “When cats come to a human bearing food, it is coming for the food, not the person,” he said. “The food is the key.” Since the cat’s attention is on the food, it
A New York-based NGO has launched a global initiative to rename the nation’s overseas missions, most of which operate under the name "Taipei," to "Taiwan Representative Office (TRO)," according to a news release. Ming Chiang (江明信), CEO of Hello Taiwan, announced the campaign at a news conference in Berlin on Monday, coinciding with the World Forum held from Monday through Wednesday, the institution stated in the release. Speaking at the event, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Jie (黃捷) said she believed this renaming campaign would enable the international community to see Taiwan
TOO DANGEROUS: The families agreed to suspend crewed recovery efforts that could put rescuers in danger from volcanic gases and unstable terrain The bodies of two Taiwanese tourists and a Japanese pilot have been located inside a volcanic crater, Japanese authorities said yesterday, nearly a month after a sightseeing helicopter crashed during a flight over southwestern Japan. Drone footage taken at the site showed three bodies near the wreckage of the aircraft inside a crater on Mount Aso in Kumamoto Prefecture, police and fire officials said. The helicopter went missing on Jan. 20 and was later found on a steep slope inside the Nakadake No. 1 Crater, about 50m below the rim. Authorities said that conditions at the site made survival highly unlikely, and ruled
RSS