Taiwan News
Date: 2016-06-12
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
Nearly 30 star-rated hotels have either newly opened or will soon open on the Yilan plain, a 
phenomenon said to have been created by conglomerates scrambling to take advantage of a tourism boom expected from the completion of the Suhua Highway Improvement Project in the next three years.
The project makes improvement to three dangerous sections of Suhua Highway (Provincial Highway No. 9) between southern Yilan County and northern Hualien County. The improved highway sections are planned to open to traffic one by one in the next three years, with the first section from Suao to Dongao being scheduled to open at the end of next year.
According to Tourism Bureau’s statistics, since the opening of the Hsuehshan Tunnel, the main artery between Yilan and Taipei on National Highway No. 5, about 10 years ago, the number of hotels in Yilan County has had no significant growth, hovering around 200, and the number of five-star international hotels has remained the same at three. [FULL STORY]
