The Taitung County Government yesterday revoked the registration certificate of Bonita Inn (波尼多小旅宿) and fined its owner NT$500,000 for secretly filming female guests.
The county government yesterday morning placed an official notice on the annulled registration certificate on the door of the hostel operator. Members of the Taitung Homestay Association were also in attendance in support of the county government’s decision.
Meanwhile, the Tourism Administration removed Bonita from a list of recommended bed-and-breakfast operators on the Taiwan Host Web site.
Photo: Huang Ming-tang, Taipei Times
The filming was exposed after a female tourist staying in the inn discovered a camera disguised as a night light in the bathroom of her room and called the police.
The police located and removed the camera and a memory card, and arrested the owner, surnamed Chen (陳), for allegedly installing the device.
His computers were also seized to determine whether others had been filmed.
Chen apologized on Facebook and announced the immediate closure of the inn.
However, he could not be reached by telephone when the county government on Monday sent personnel to inspect the premises.
Taitung County Commissioner Yao Ching-ling (饒慶鈴) said that the tourism industry is important to the country.
Chen was fined the maximum amount, NT$500,000, and the inn’s registration certificate was canceled because he harmed tourists and seriously damaged the county’s image as a travel destination, Yao said.
She added that a comprehensive inspection of lodging businesses in the county would be launched in light of the incident.
The Taitung Transportation and Tourism Department said that the inn was fined based on Article 53-1 of the Act for the Development of Tourism (發展觀光條例), which stipulates that operators of international tourist hotels, other hotels, tourist amusement enterprises or homestay facilities who tarnish national dignity, damage national interest, contravene good morals or defraud tourists should be fined NT$30,000 to NT$150,000.
In serious offenses, operators are to be fined NT$150,000 to NT$500,000 and their business should be partly or completely closed for a fixed period, or their operation license or registration certificate revoked, the article says.
Taitung Homestay Association members said that Chen should be given the heaviest punishment because his behavior has made it more difficult to run their businesses, which have already been severely affected by a massive earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale that struck on April 3.
So far, the booking rate for the upcoming summer vacation is less than 10 percent, they said.
“What happened at Bonita Inn is an isolated case, and we cannot let it ruin the entire industry. We are willing to comply with inspections launched by county officials,” association chairman Lin Pao-chuan (林寶泉) said.
As guests staying in hostels could be secretly filming others as well, Lin said that the association would encourage hostel operators to regularly inspect their facilities themselves, adding that other issues would soon be addressed in the association’s board meeting.
Other hostel operators suggested that the Regulations for the Management of Home Stay Facilities (民宿管理辦法) be amended, as they only ban individuals from running hostels if they were sentenced to five or more years in prison.
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