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.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to