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.
STIMULUS PLANS: An official said that China would increase funding from special treasury bonds and expand another program focused on key strategic sectors China is to sharply increase funding from ultra-long treasury bonds this year to spur business investment and consumer-boosting initiatives, a state planner official told a news conference yesterday, as Beijing cranks up fiscal stimulus to revitalize its faltering economy. Special treasury bonds would be used to fund large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-ins, said Yuan Da (袁達), deputy secretary-general of the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission. “The size of ultra-long special government bond funds will be sharply increased this year to intensify and expand the implementation of the two new initiatives,” Yuan said. Under the program launched last year, consumers can
Citigroup Inc and Bank of America Corp said they are leaving a global climate-banking group, becoming the latest Wall Street lenders to exit the coalition in the past month. In a statement, Citigroup said while it remains committed to achieving net zero emissions, it is exiting the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA). Bank of America said separately on Tuesday that it is also leaving NZBA, adding that it would continue to work with clients on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The banks’ departure from NZBA follows Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Wells Fargo & Co. The largest US financial institutions are under increasing pressure
FUTURE TECH: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang would give the keynote speech at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, which is also expected to highlight autonomous vehicles Gadgets, robots and vehicles imbued with artificial intelligence (AI) would once again vie for attention at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, as vendors behind the scenes would seek ways to deal with tariffs threatened by US president-elect Donald Trump. The annual Consumer Electronics Show opens formally in Las Vegas tomorrow, but preceding days are packed with product announcements. AI would be a major theme of the show, along with autonomous vehicles ranging from tractors and boats to lawn mowers and golf club trollies. “Everybody is going to be talking about AI,” Creative Strategies Inc analyst Carolina Milanesi said. “From fridges to ovens
TECH PULL: Electronics heavyweights also attracted strong buying ahead of the CES, analysts said. Meanwhile, Asian markets were mixed amid Trump’s incoming presidency Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shares yesterday closed at a new high in the wake of a rally among tech stocks on Wall Street on Friday, moving the TAIEX sharply higher by more than 600 points. TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock in the TAIEX, rose 4.65 percent to close at a new high of NT$1,125, boosting its market value to NT$29.17 trillion (US$888 billion) and contributing about 400 points to the TAIEX’s rise. The TAIEX ended up 639.41 points, or 2.79 percent, at 23,547.71. Turnover totaled NT$406.478 billion, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. The surge in TSMC follows a positive performance
RSS