The tourism industry in Taiwan has geared up to entice both local as well as foreign guests, since the World Health Organization (WHO) removed Taiwan from its travel advisory list on Tuesday.
Grand Hyatt Taipei and Taipei Bank announced their team-up yesterday by rolling out a special promotion package based on the result of each lottery draw.
Starting from June 21, customers winning a number that matches the lottery result will get NT$500 off from the original price of NT$3,300 to stay one night at Grand Hyatt Taipei. For those who win two or three numbers matching the lottery result, they can deduct NT$1,000 and NT$1,500 respectively from the room rate.
In a bid to stimulate consumer's interests in buying lottery tickets, Taipei Bank indicated that the Jackpot prize will hit at least NT$100 million in cash for the eight draws between June 21 and July 18.
The severe acute respiratory syndrome has dealt a large blow to Taiwan's travel industry. Occupancy rates at five-star hotels have lingered around 30 percent in the past weeks. WHO's latest decision to lift the ban is expected to stimulate the sluggish tourism market on the island.
"Taiwan is a business driven place. We expect travelers will come back quicker than they do in Hong Kong and Singapore, which are more of leisure driven places," said Grand Hyatt Taipei General Manager Shaun Treacy.
Far Eastern Plaza Hotel, a member of the Shangri-La group, will offer a 30 percent discount to foreign business travelers. "Phone inquiries on reservations have increased a lot recently, mostly concentrating on bookings in late June and early July," said Christine Yen, communications director at the Far Eastern Plaza Hotel. "In August, we will debut a brand new campaign to team up with Commonwealth Magazine to catch the summer crowd," said Yen.
Other hotels, such as Grand Formosa Regent Taipei, are all catching the opportunity to roll out all kinds of attractive low-price campaigns.
Not only the hotel industry, airliners in Taiwan were also seriously hit. China Airlines Spokesperson Roger Han said, "The WHO's decision is definitely a relaxing thing for local residents and will help boost overseas customers' confidence in Taiwan."
China Airlines has launched two different campaigns targeting both local and overseas customers. Outbound travelers planning to go overseas this summer will enjoy on average a 30 to 40 percent discount compared with last summer. "We expect that passenger load will recover to last year's level in July but the price level will only recover to the 2002's level in this August or September," said Han.
In order to entice customers, Eva Air also rolled out several promotional packages, including a campaign of NT$1 air ticket for children under 12 years old traveling with their parents.
Laura Ho, TAIPEI, Taiwan, The China Post
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