Average hotel bookings for the first three days of the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday are below 50 percent, about 6 percentage points lower than last year, government data showed.
As of Wednesday, the average booking rate for hotels across Taiwan for the first three days of the long holiday weekend was 49.22 percent, down from an average of 55.23 percent for the first four days of last year’s five-day holiday.
The Tourism Administration, which does not look at booking rates for the final day of the holiday because most people return home that day, attributed the general decline to a shorter holiday weekend this year.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
It could also be because more Taiwanese are vacationing abroad, no longer affected by COVID-19 considerations.
In January, the most recent month for which data are available, 1.28 million Taiwanese traveled abroad, up 84 percent from January last year.
Despite the relative decline in bookings, hotels in 13 cities and counties had booking rates of more than 50 percent, Tourism Administration data showed.
The highest average booking rate was 67.43 percent in Lienchiang County, likely due to the “blue tears” season that begins this month.
Blue tears is a name for a natural phenomenon in which clusters of bioluminescent marine algae, known as dinoflagellates, near the Matsu archipelago emit a blue glow when disturbed by waves.
Hotels in Tainan, and Hualien and Lienchiang counties are booked for Thursday at a more than 60 percent rate, tourism data showed.
Bookings were even stronger for Friday, exceeding 60 percent on average in hotels in Taipei, Taichung and Tainan, and Chiayi, Hualien, Miaoli, Nantou, Pingtung and Taitung counties, and 70 percent in Lienchiang County.
For Saturday, Taipei and Lienchiang had average booking rates or more than 60 percent, the data showed.
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