Britain’s Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) and Singapore’s Hong Leong Group (豐隆集團) have announced plans to invest in Taiwan’s hotel industry.
IHG last week signed deals to open hotels in Xiamen, China, Hong Kong and Taipei, adding more than 700 rooms to its Asia-Pacific portfolio.
TAIPEI EXPANSION
Its Holiday Inn Express brand will be the banner establishment for a 170-room Taipei development that will open next year, while a 300-room property in Mongkok in Hong Kong is set to be unveiled in 2013, the -Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday.
Its boutique brand, Indigo, will open branches in two locations next year, including a 125-room hotel in Taipei and another 127-room establishment in Xiamen, China.
The Taiwanese expansion is part of a plan by IHG, the world’s biggest hotel group by number of rooms, to increase its presence in its Greater China portfolio, which includes markets in China, Mongolia and Taiwan.
HONG LEONG
Meanwhile, Hong Leong — a conglomerate with businesses spanning hotel management, financial services and real estate — said it would invest in three hotels in Taipei and Sun Moon Lake (日月潭) in Nantou County, with the first deal expected to be signed by next month. With partners MarkWell Group (午陽企業集團), its first hotel project in Taiwan will be launched in the fourth quarter next year, it said.
Restaurant chain Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐) today announced it is to close 14 stores in northern China, completely exiting the market by the end of October. Beijing Hengtaifeng Catering Co (北京恆泰豐餐飲), which operates Din Tai Fung restaurants in northern China, said its 20-year operating license expires this year. As the board was unable to reach a consensus on continuing operations, its 14 restaurants in the region are to close by Oct. 31, it said. The company apologized for the inconvenience and disappointment the news would cause among its customers, and said it would provide compensation for its workers. “We continue to be optimistic about
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Micron Technology Inc has reportedly set its sights on two facilities owned by flat-panel maker AUO Corp (友達) after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) recently clinched a deal to buy a facility and equipment from Innolux Corp (群創), another major flat-panel maker. Micron, the world’s third-largest memorychip maker, is expected to purchase two AUO plants in Tainan to expand its advanced chip packaging and testing services and high-bandwidth memory production, local media reports said. The two plants were shut down in August last year and AUO is seeking to dispose of the facilities, the reports said. They are expected to cost Micron
One of the hottest viral trends, where people sprint, leap and crash around Cambodia’s historic Angkor Wat and other temple ruins in the Southeast Asian nation in a live recreation of a popular video game, has conservationists aghast, with several saying the race for views denigrates the almost 900-year-old sculptures and risks irreparable damage. Short videos of visitors running down narrow stone pathways and vaulting over passageways — often overlayed with sounds from the popular Temple Run video game — have been making the rounds on TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and other platforms. Some videos have received more than 2 million views