Luxury hotel The Lalu (涵碧樓) last year outperformed its peers in revenue per available room (RevPAR), as resort facilities benefited from a boom in domestic tourism, while urban hotels were hit hard by fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, a survey by Colliers International Taiwan (高力國際) showed yesterday.
The Lalu, near Nantou County’s Sun Moon Lake (日月潭), achieved a RevPAR of NT$9,727 (US$342.42) in the first three quarters of last year, followed by the nearby Fleur de Chine Hotel (雲品溫泉酒店) with NT$5,938 and the Silks Place Taroko (太魯閣晶英酒店) in Hualien County with NT$5,915, the quarterly survey found.
Strict border controls have fueled a boom in domestic tourism and the windfall is most evident in the eastern counties of Yilan, Hualien and Taitung, Colliers Taiwan said, adding that the trend is likely to continue until cross-border travel is once again safe.
Photo: CNA
RevPAR is a metric used in the hospitality industry to measure hotel performance by multiplying a hotel’s average daily room rate by its occupancy rate.
The Lalu saw an average daily room rate of NT$14,474 during the period, enabling it to retain the top spot for a second consecutive year, despite an occupancy rate of only 67.2 percent, lower than popular resorts in Pingtung County’s Kenting (墾丁) area and elsewhere.
Caesar Park Kenting (墾丁凱薩) topped the survey with an average occupancy rate of 86.87 percent, followed by the Hotel Royal Chihpen (知本老爺酒店) in Taitung County at 80.3 percent, and Alishan House (阿里山賓館) in the Alishan National Forest Recreation Area (阿里山國家森林遊樂區) at 71.03 percent, it said.
The three facilities had average daily room rates of NT$5,332 to NT$4,425, it said.
Government-issued travel subsidies and the Triple Stimulus Vouchers helped fan domestic tourism, but the effect was limited for hotels in urban locations, due to their dependence on foreign tourists, Colliers Taiwan said.
Foreign tourist arrivals plunged 87.3 percent to 1.36 million in the first 11 months of last year, causing the average hotel occupancy rate in Taipei to fall to 26.22 percent, from 73.25 percent a year earlier, the real-estate consultancy said.
The pandemic offers unprofitable hotels a sobering opportunity to exit the market, even though the public health crisis would eventually end, Colliers Taiwan said.
Many buyers at home and abroad remain eager to enter the hospitality industry, especially in the six special municipalities, which are convenient locations, the broker said, adding that loss-making facilities without a diverse clientele should close.
Hotel transactions in the Asia-Pacific region shrank nearly 50 percent to US$8.1 billion last year, it said, adding that Taiwan made the top five list thanks to the purchase of Sunworld Dynasty Hotel Taipei (王朝大酒店) in July by Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽) for NT$26.8 billion.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
RSS