As the government gradually eases travel entry restrictions, the number of inbound and outbound tourists from various countries has been increasing. Taiwan has officially entered the post-pandemic era with a relaxation of entry restrictions. With quarantine hotels becoming obsolete, there is an urgent need for transformation in the local hotel industry to boost tourism in Taipei City.
The Department of Information and Tourism of the Taipei City Government joined hands with the Dream Travel Taiwan Association to host a training course on hotel industry transformation. The course is aimed at strengthening the resilience of the hotel industry and predicting trends. The participants responded that they have gained a great deal of knowledge from the lectures and experience shared by professionals from the fields of industry, government and academia.
To promote recovery of the tourism industry, the “2022 Annual Taipei City Hotel Industry Transformation Course and Site Visits” was held over five sessions since October to train hundreds of hotel practitioners. The Taipei Department of Information and Tourism focused on four major aspects of transformation — sustainability, international hospitality, digital application and innovative marketing.
In addition to reiterating guidelines for cleanliness, the course this year also focused on the reception of foreign guests to improve service quality and broadening the participants’ knowledge of international trends. The informative sessions garnered high praise from participants.
Taipei Department of Information and Tourism Commissioner Liu Yi-ting (劉奕霆) said that to keep up with the global trend of sustainable development, the Taipei government passed legislation to achieve a net-zero emissions target by 2050 in June this year, becoming the country’s first local government to make such a commitment.
Taipei strives to promote the city’s net-zero transition, and moves toward a future of carbon neutrality in step with the world. However, a shortage of labor in the hotel sector continues during recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Hotels at home and abroad have begun to widely use automated devices for reception, food delivery and cleaning. Demonstrating such technology, professionals showed how digital solutions can help hotel owners deal with lower staffing levels.
To show how services targeted to foreign guests can be strengthened, the course invited international tour guides to talk about the best ways to welcome overseas visitors. There were also courses to teaching how to promote the charms of Taiwan, and how to digitally upgrade hotel software and hardware.
Other courses included the application of big data and NFT in tourism, hotel hygiene and safety, branding, and consumer complaint resolution, which were targeted at meeting the industry’s needs coming out of the pandemic.
Liu said that Taiwan has once again ranked second in the Global Muslim Tourism Index this year. Since 2019, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism has been promoting related programs, continuously enhancing a program to create a Muslim-friendly environment, and bolstering tourist attractions and the hotel industry in Taipei.
It has been four years since the department began improving facilities necessary for Muslim religious life, such as eating and praying. Many five-star hotels and quarantine hotel operators are optimistic about tourism recovery, as the phase of pandemic prevention comes to an end. Hotels all actively joined the mentoring program in the middle of the year, and look forward to the return of tourism prosperity.
(Advertorial)
HANDOVER POLICY: Approving the probe means that the new US administration of Donald Trump is likely to have the option to impose trade restrictions on China US President Joe Biden’s administration is set to initiate a trade investigation into Chinese semiconductors in the coming days as part of a push to reduce reliance on a technology that US officials believe poses national security risks. The probe could result in tariffs or other measures to restrict imports on older-model semiconductors and the products containing them, including medical devices, vehicles, smartphones and weaponry, people familiar with the matter said. The investigation examining so-called foundational chips could take months to conclude, meaning that any reaction to the findings would be left to the discretion of US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming team. Biden
INVESTMENT: Jun Seki, chief strategy officer for Hon Hai’s EV arm, and his team are currently in talks in France with Renault, Nissan’s 36 percent shareholder Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the iPhone maker known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally, is in talks with Nissan Motor Co’s biggest shareholder Renault SA about its willingness to sell its shares in the Japanese automaker, the Central News Agency (CNA) said, citing people it did not identify. Nissan and fellow Japanese automaker, Honda Motor Co, are exploring a merger that would create a rival to Toyota Motor Corp in Japan and better position the combined company to face competitive challenges around the world, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. However, one potential spanner in the works is
HON HAI LURKS: The ‘Nikkei’ reported that Foxconn’s interest in Nissan accelerated the Honda-merger effort out of fears it might be taken over by the Taiwanese firm Nissan Motor Co has become the latest buyout target in Japan as it explores a merger with Honda Motor Co and faces an overture from Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally. Shares in Nissan yesterday jumped 24 percent, the most on record, to hit the daily limit, after the two Japanese automakers acknowledged that talks are ongoing to better position themselves for competitive challenges during a time of upheaval in the global auto industry. Foxconn — a Taipei-based manufacturer of iPhones, which has been investing heavily in factories to build electric vehicles — has also
CHIP SUBSIDY: The US funding would help alleviate the financial pressure from building two fabs in the US and should lift gross margins in 2026, the company said GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s third-largest silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said it is to receive US$406 million in subsidies from the US Department of Commerce for two new US fabs under the CHIPS and Science Act, with the first batch of the funds likely coming next year. The grant represents 10 percent of the planned investments of US$4 billion in advanced semiconductor wafer manufacturing facilities in Texas and Missouri, GlobalWafers said. The commerce department is to disburse the funds based on the completion of project milestones over a multiyear timeframe, the company said. Along with the tax credit, which is equal to
RSS