New Year banquets are back on the menu as COVID recedes into the past

New Year banquets are back on the menu as COVID recedes into the past

2022-10-17

New Year is approaching fast, and banquet experts say that parties are officially back. The pandemic made for very muted New Year seasons over the last two years. Few companies held the giant employee dinners that are traditional for Lunar New Year. But now gatherings are back, and people are ready to mingle. Banquets will be larger than ever before in 2023, say forecasters. Companies are also offering new styles of banquet packages, to cater to changing tastes.

King crab, abalone, buddha jumps over the wall soup… Delicacy upon delicacy arrives at the table. New Year banquets languished during COVID, but now they’re back – big time.

Tang Shih-ching
FTV reporter
Are you sick of traditional banquet dishes? Now wedding banquet companies can see the pandemic slowing down, and they’re planning outdoors New Year banquet packages.

Food trucks are parked in a garden of more than 7,000 ping. This semi-buffet style banquet allows for ample social distancing and reduces infection risks, but it’s also well suited to the aesthetic tastes of Taiwan’s younger generation.

You can enjoy the food in a beautiful natural setting, and admire a fun drone performance. This new banquet offer has successfully grown bookings among young people. It’s 90% sold out.

Hsieh Wei-tien
Wedding banquet industry
New Year banquets and parties have come back this year. Recently we’ve been planning these kinds of outdoors banquets for clients, for example, picnic style and barbecue style banquets. In this style, there are dedicated waiters serving, to prevent people’s food plates from overlapping.

Shao Chih-chi
Hotel PR manager
Right now, we are 90% booked up for both Friday and Saturday. This year we’re noticing the industries are mostly technology and finance. We also have some small businesses with small groups of 30 to 50, who are also booking out a restaurant privately to hold their New Year banquets and parties.

The New Year party season promises to be busy this year – busier even than before COVID. In the past, experts say 80% of banquet expenses went on the ingredients. Now much more focus and expense goes on the venue and its décor, to give weary employees a memorable end to the year.

疫情趨緩商機回流客製化尾牙引進餐車.無人機表演

2022-10-17

停辦至少2年的尾牙、春節，隨著疫情趨緩，報復性回流，不僅預定、詢問度變高，平均桌數更是增加3成，飯店及餐飲業者，樂得搶攻尾牙商機，就有婚宴業者，推出客製化的戶外尾牙專案，引進餐車、無人機表演，業者發現，更受年輕人歡迎。

帝王蟹、鮑魚、佛跳牆，通通端上桌，因為疫情沉寂已久的尾牙、春酒市場，已經蠢蠢欲動。

[[民視記者唐詩晴]]
“吃膩了傳統桌菜嗎，現在就有婚宴業者瞄準疫情趨緩，規劃起戶外的尾牙專案”

把餐車開進7千多坪的大草原，半自助模式，不光能擴大間距、降低染疫風險，也更貼近時下年輕人口味。

除了有天然美景相伴，噱頭十足的無人機表演，更是成功拉抬年底訂單，來到9成滿。

[[婚宴業者謝偉鼎]]
“那今年(尾牙、春酒)又回流回來了，最近我們也幫客人規劃這種戶外型的尾牙型態，譬如說可以用野餐的方式，烤肉的方式，或是用餐車的方式，那在這樣取餐的過程是由專人在服務，避免他們交叉去取用的這個狀況”

[[飯店業公關總監趙芝綺]]
“目前週五、週六兩個日子，(預訂)大概都已經有9成滿，今年也觀察到，產業還是以科技、金融業最為居多，另外有一些小型的，30到50人的小型團體，也會運用餐廳的包場，來舉辦他們的春酒、尾牙”

今年尾牙，預訂熱絡、更勝以往，業者也觀察到，相比過去將80%預算，都花在食材上，現在大家更傾向提高場地布置，希望讓辛苦整年的員工，玩得盡興。

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Taiwan Statebuilding Party to hold parade against unification with China on Oct. 23

The Taiwan Statebuilding Party on Monday gave details for a parade it has organized for Oct. 23 to show its opposition to unification with China. The parade is scheduled for one day after the closure of the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, where Chinese leader Xi Jinping is expected to be granted a third term. The Taiwan State Building Party called supporters to attend the rally, and to not vote for candidates from pro-China parties in the upcoming local elections.

Councilor candidates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party stand in line and chant slogans. Chinese leader Xi Jinping is set to get a third term leading China. In Taiwan, the Taiwan Statebuilding Party wants to raise awareness about what that could mean for Taiwan.

Wang Hsing-huan
Taiwan Statebuilding Party
After the 20th Chinese Communist Party Congress, the Taiwan Strait will be in a situation of unprecedented danger. So we have decided that the day after the congress ends, on Oct. 23, we will hold a parade. It’ll show Taiwan’s vanguard – a march to protect Taiwan. We want to make it known that Taiwan stands together, and that we are resolved to fight off China and protect Taiwan.

Lee Tsung-lin
Taiwan Statebuilding Party
I would like to ask all our supporters, to not give a single vote to the mayoral and councilor candidates from the Taiwan People’s Party or the KMT. That’s the only way to effectively show them that surrendering Taiwan has no market in this country.

The councilor directed words at the pro-China parties in Taiwan. Chinese leader Xi has often discussed plans to annex Taiwan, engaging in armed conflict if necessary. Despite this, the KMT confirmed that it had sent a congratulatory message to China on the occasion of the CCP Congress. The message has been used in Chinese state media as proof that political parties in the quote “Taiwan Area” support closer cross-strait ties.

China Central Television
The Chinese Nationalist Party’s central committee on Sunday sent a congratulatory message to the Chinese Communist Party’s central committee, voicing hope that, on the foundation of the “1992 consensus” and opposition to “Taiwan independence,” the two sides of the strait will have substantial exchanges and cooperation on all fields.

Chao Tien-lin
DPP lawmaker
Despite the fact that Xi has advocated for armed conflict against Taiwan, the KMT still bends at the knee for them and sends over a congratulatory message. They do that instead of protesting China, and voicing disapproval of its stance. I think this is a shameful moment that will be forever part of the KMT’s history.

Analysts have also closely followed Xi’s words on Taiwan at the CCP Congress.

Akio Yaita
Sankei Shimbun Taipei office head
He spoke for two hours, yet made no mention of “one country, two systems.” He has said he wants to solve the Taiwan issue, but he didn’t put forward any concrete plans. Instead he just spoke all these empty words. So we didn’t really see anything of substance in that. To a certain extent, Xi Jinping is just pursuing an ostrich policy.

Ming Chu-cheng
NTU Political Science Department
Xi Jinping says China will never renounce the use of force against Taiwan. That’s nothing special. They’ve been saying the same thing for decades. But a point that he stressed was that the conflict won’t be against Taiwanese compatriots, but against external forces that intervene.

China is facing international pressure, as it grapples with a worsening COVID outbreak and an increasingly problematic economy. The world is watching as Xi prepares for a third term.

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Taiwanese Navy relies on Albatross drones to protect Taiwan waters from threat

Since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the use of military drones in warfare has spurred worldwide interest. Taiwan has its own indigenous military drone, the “Albatross,” also known as the Chung Xiang II. The R.O.C. Navy has more than 30 of the drones in use, and employs them to carry out surveillance and reconnaissance of Taiwanese waters. We got to meet some Albatross “pilots” to learn more about this lynchpin of Taiwan’s naval protection net.

Naval officers bring the Albatross gradually up from the tarmac into the air.

Once the drone reaches a certain height, a ground operator takes over the controls. Images are transmitted by laser and come out crystal clear.

Chi Wu-chun
Naval Maritime Reconnaissance
They have optical lenses assemblies that can magnify by 20 and 30 times, with a continuous focus of 12.5 times, as well as a black and white heat imaging function. The laser detector measures the drone’s distance to its target.

Pi Hsiang
FTV reporter
The Albatross drone beside me has been in service for many years, and has become one of the key tools currently used for surveillance and reconnaissance. This August it played an importance reconnaissance role as China was conducting military drills around Taiwan.

The Albatross measures 8.7 meters across and is 5.3 meters long. It can fly up to 12 hours in the air. The medium-size drone was developed and built in Taiwan. The drones were transferred from the Army to the Navy in 2017, and are stationed at bases including Pingtung, Hengchun and Taitung. The Navy has more than 30 Albatrosses in service, and with China’s aggressive posturing growing more frequent in recent years, the Albatross has become a favored tool, able to undertake long surveillance flights without consuming excessive resources.

Chao Chun-lin
Naval Maritime Reconnaissance
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we have gradually started to see the usage of drones on the battlefield. Recently, when the CCP held its military drills in August, we were commanded to carry out our duties in a specific maritime zone. We set up our equipment every day, takeoff and landing, carrying out targeted surveillance of the designated zone.

Every movement of China’s warships near Taiwan is closely monitored by Taiwan’s Navy. But to operate a device like this, officers have to pass a series of exacting tests.

Naval officers first undergo basic takeoff and landing training with this lifelike simulation for three months. Next they study modules such as battle maneuvers, and handling emergencies. It takes, on average, a year of training to become a drone pilot charged with guarding Taiwan’s coasts.

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Roads and tourist areas closed in aftermath of Typhoon Nesat

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Taiwan aims to install 200 offshore wind turbines before end of the year

Typhoon Nesat brought torrential rains to Taiwan over the past few days, causing flooding and blackouts. The storm also filled reservoirs, with many now up to near-full capacity. The economics ministry said it hopes to avoid future outages by adding 200 wind turbines before the end of the year, which may also involve the use of new technologies like combined wind-power and hydrogen-generating turbines.

With torrential rain falling nonstop, a waterfall has appeared at the door of this elevator. People push onto the elevator with umbrellas in hand to escape the downpour. Here at this shopping mall in Taipei’s Nangang District, the impact of Typhoon Nesat is especially apparent. The heavy downpours in recent days also caused blackouts around Taiwan. Speaking at the Global Offshore Wind Summit, economics minister Wang Mei-hua spoke on the situation.

Wang Mei-hua
Economics minister
There were originally 183 locations that were flooded, but as of 8 a.m. today that number was down to 19, and there are 3,600 homes without power. That’s after we restored power to 3,300 homes.

Wang said that by 11 p.m. on Monday power would be restored everywhere. Despite the inconveniences of the power outage, the heavy rainfall had a good side: Keelung’s Hsinshan Reservoir – which had sounded the alarm for low water levels before the storm – is now up to 80% capacity. At other reservoirs in the country, the news is even better. However, authorities are urging the public to exercise caution to avoid accidents near riverbeds when flood gates are opened. At the summit, Wang said more offshore wind turbines will be installed before year’s end, to prevent future outages.

Wang Mei-hua
Economics minister
This year will be our biggest for installation of offshore wind turbines. In fact, our goal for the end of the year is to have 200 new turbines installed.

Wang said that in order to ensure the government meets its sustainability goals for 2026, it is investing in newer wind turbine solutions. This may include installation of turbines on floating platforms, or installation of hydrogen-producing turbines.

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Hotels in Taipei seeing a gradual increase in bookings by foreign tourists

Taiwan’s borders have been open for less than a week, but already, foreign tourists are streaming in. One hotel in Taipei says that 70% of its bookings for late October are foreign travelers. Another says it’s ready for a surge in bookings over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

Receptionists check in guests in a lobby full of people. Taiwan lifted all COVID border restrictions on Thursday last week and finally international travelers are coming in. Most people arriving are business travelers and independent travelers. This tourist from the U.S. says he had really been looking forward to exploring Taiwan.

American tourist
I was monitoring that because I don’t think anyone wants to stay in a hotel room for three days or a week. The flight from LA was very full. It’s nice to see Taiwan open up. And I’m here to explore this beautiful, very important island.

The traveler says he’s planning to travel around Taiwan for two weeks. According to the hotel, more than half of guests in late October are international travelers. In November and December, which are traditionally high season for the hospitality sector, occupancy is already at 80%. And 70% of bookings are for foreign travelers.

Tsai Hui-ju
Hotel PR
We have guests from Hong Kong, Singapore, as well as independent travelers from Europe and the U.S. There are also some tour groups. So we are optimistic about business in the fourth quarter. We hope to see 10% to 20% higher numbers.

The hotel has released special packages of about 15% off for long stays ranging from seven days to one month. Another hotel decided to take advantage of the lull in tourism due to COVID to renovate its facilities. Now it’s ready to reopen to offer the best services to foreign visitors.

Chao Chih-chi
Hotel PR
There are quite a lot of Taiwanese travelers making bookings for the Christmas season and New Year’s Eve. There are also a few foreign tourists hoping to visit Taipei.

Before the pandemic, at least 90% of the guests at this hotel in Taipei were foreign travelers. Aver a facility revamp, the hotel is ready to make bank on the holiday season now that tourists are back.

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