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Updated Monday, October 8, 2007 0:00 am TWN, The China Post news staff

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Hualien claims NT$100 mil. in tourism losses

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Intense media coverage of Typhoon Krosa has negatively impacted the tourism industry around Taiwan, officials from the tourism and hotel industries said yesterday. In Hualien County alone, the three-day typhoon could have caused up to NT$100 million in damages to the local hotel industry, they claimed.

After Krosa has left, the residual rain will keep tourists away from mountainous areas for another week and again affect the hotel business, they added while hinting at the media’s style of reporting on typhoons.

Images of fallen rocks and landslides, combined with warning reports of traffic interruption on the Suao-Hualien (Suhua) Highway in eastern Taiwan or the Central Taiwan Cross-Island Highway linking Taichung and Hualien, discouraged travelers to enter Hualien County, said the same officials.

“People doing business in Hualien County must watch for signs from the gods,” lamented a business owner in the media.

Since August, Hualien County has been hit by three major typhoons — Krosa, Wipha and Sepat — which negatively impacted the occupation rates in most resorts in the County.

In Ku Kuan area, traffic was not interrupted but tourists didn’t come anyway, said Lin Jia-cheng, director general of Ku Kuan Community Development Association. Typhoon Krosa caused serious damage to Ku Kuan scenic area but media’s continuous reporting of the possibility of mudslides in mountainous regions dissuaded most tourists in advance, he said.

He added that among the eight sightseeing buses of tourists originally planned for the week-end only five finally showed up and departed immediately after lunch. There was no business at all in the Ku Kuan area on Saturday, he went on, even though the situation on the Central Taiwan Cross-Island Highway was fine. Ku Kuan is a hot spring resort about an hour and a half drive from Taichung.

In Kenting area, the rooms’ cancellation rates amounted to between 70 and 90 percent, said Chang Chi-kuang, chairman of a strategic alliance for Hungchun Peninsula’s recreational industry and general manager of the Howard Beach Resort Kenting. “We cannot help it,” he added, sounding disappointed.

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