Taiwan Today

If going on a weekend holiday means battling traffic, long lines, and crowds, only to arrive at packed destinations, who wants it? A lot of people in Taipei, it seems. New work hours in many private companies now allow employees alternate Saturdays off, and increased affluence has enabled more people to buy cars. The result is extra time and greater mobility, making the idea of vacations or weekend sojourns practicable and all the more attractive to city people, especially as the quality of their environment deterio­rates. So every weekend the pattern repeats itself. Day-trippers no more, urbanites brave near-continuous congestion as they venture out of the city in search of places that offer some leisure and peace of mind. But finding a place to stay or even a spot to relax is difficult indeed. The competition among urbanites for leisure space is already stiff, and it is rapidly becoming fierce.

To the rescue comes the vacation club, which fills, for at least part of the population, the need to relax in com­fortable lodgings set against a scenic background. There are currently five large-scale resort groups in Taiwan, each with a number of clubs around the island. The clubs are for members only, and charge a one-time membership fee ranging from US$6,000 to US$23,000. Competition for members is tough, and the clubs are adding more attractions, particularly sports facilities ranging from tennis courts to golf courses.

The vacation club is a newfangled idea in Taiwan. The first venture into va­cation clubs, Victors Resort Internation­al, Inc., was formally set up only three years ago, but since then a number of other resort groups have followed suit. Oftentimes these facilities are located near national parks and forests or other scenic areas. While these clubs aspire to become luxury resorts, for now their primary benefit is providing members with quality lodgings away from urban areas and near existing recreational areas. With close to 10,000 members and ten locations across the island, Victors remains the largest resort group in Taiwan.

A typical day at a Victors vacation club sees members rising early to have breakfast, then going off for the morning or entire day to walk around nearby park areas or other tourist sites. They return to the clubhouse for meals, and in the evenings visit the club's karaoke hall where they can dance or sing along with taped popular music. Videotapes are also available for those guests who would prefer resting in the privacy of their own rooms. Some vacationers bring their own evening entertainment, most often a pack of cards, a Chinese chessboard, or a mahjong set. In other words, what the vacationers do at the club is actually not much different from what they would do at home. The difference is a change of venue—and perhaps escape from the tyranny of the telephone.

Apparently, Victors knows its market. Michael Shih, a manager in the sales division, says the manage­ment's goal is to make the members "feel at home." And true enough, the resort group's founding philosophy, as expressed in its publicity, is to "provide members with the comforts of home, and enhance their leisurely relaxation by sparing them the trouble of maintaining their own vacation homes."

Wang Yu-yun, now honorary director of Victors, was savvy enough to anticipate five years ago that people would soon be open to the idea of taking more vacation time and that they would be better able to finance it. He masterminded the business venture and brought in as investors some 30 other professionals and businesses including development companies, building contractors, and trading companies. Initial investment totaled US$19 million at 40 cents per share. Wang himself is the top stockholder with five million shares.

The initial investment capital, Shih explains, was used to purchase land throughout Taiwan. Victors now has landholdings totaling 65 acres distribut­ed among ten separate clubs around the island. The smallest lot is in Hsintien, Taipei County, where Yentzu [Swallow] Lake Club is located. The largest lot, with 18 acres of land, is in the comparatively undeveloped Taitung County, along Taiwan's east coast. Since 1987, Victors has built several clubs in northern Taiwan.

The newest addition, about an hour's drive from Hualien Airport and the city's train station, is Liyu [Carp] Lake Club, which opened only last December. The club's neat white stucco buildings with their red-tile roofs stand out prominently amid a cluster of neigh­ boring houses. On either side lie aboriginal settlements on the terraced hills of Liyu Mountain. The club offers a panoramic view of the lake and its green, pristine surroundings. It is a sight that is not easy to come by in metropolitan Taipei, where most of the club's members work and live. And this is exactly why establishing a chain of exclusive vacation clubs near scenic areas seemed like such a good idea to the club founders.

The land on which Liyu Lake Club stands still bears a remarkable resemblance to the betel nut plantation that it once was. The landscaping is natural, not contrived. Evenly-spaced steppes and rows of slender betel nut palms have remained as they were when still harvested as a cash crop. "When we draw up the plans for a club and its landscape," Shih says, "we try very hard to maintain the original scenery and to create harmony between a building and its natural surroundings."

Up close, Liyu Lake Club can pass for a Spanish villa. The main building houses the reception area, some guest rooms, a karaoke hall for nighttime musical entertainment, and the only bona fide restaurant for miles around. There are also two presidential suites for members who want a more luxurious setting. Flanking the main building to the east and west are three-story wings containing the guest rooms. Not at all spartan, the rooms are equipped with color TVs, video cassette players, and the simple comforts of home, including a welcome supply of tea leaves and a thermos of scalding hot water. The club also has a swimming pool, and badmin­ton and tennis courts.

Guests at the club appreciate the serenity, the immaculate grounds—and the fresh air. Children are fascinated by the multi-colored carp gliding through the manmade rivulet outside the main building. "My daughters have been so excited ever since we left Taipei to come here," says Mrs. Sun. "It was their first train ride, and they woke up before dawn because they couldn't wait to go hiking and look for monkeys." The Suns had long ago planned a Liyu Lake Club vacation for the weekend, and the family is a classic example of Victors' target market: stable, middle-class families.

Typical members are young, married, management-level professionals who want to take their families on vacations at quiet, scenic locations around the island. Indeed, the resort group's main selling point is that it provides "fun for the whole family." "Traditionally, Chinese people work very hard to save money and get ahead," says Wu Chuen-hsiung, director of Victors. "They turned their living rooms into factories," he says, quoting the popular industrialization slogan of a decade or two ago. Calling that mentality outdated, Wu avidly supports the idea of taking time off to relax amidst unspoiled nature. "It will improve family relationships and create good memories for children," he says.

According to Wu, the country's economy could use more domestic industry, especially in the service sector. "And taking vacations is perhaps the healthiest and the most enjoyable way to contribute to the growth of service in­dustries," he says. Wu, who was formerly a legislator and a member of the Kaohsiung City Council, complains that the government has neglected this aspect of social welfare. "The government should promote the recreational service industry and encourage the public to take advantage of vacation opportunities," he says. "But it's doing the opposite by not developing more recreation areas and not providing better public facilities."

Above all, Wu stresses, the government must educate people to the benefits of leisure activities for mental and physi­cal health. To do its part in the educational process, Victors publishes a bimonthly magazine for its members. The magazine contains articles on fine dining, new Victors clubs and their at­ tractions, and leisure activities.

Club member Ms. Lin does not need to be convinced of the importance of getting away from it all. Staying at Yentzu Lake Club for the weekend, she says, "We have family reunions at the club. The facilities are decent and we all enjoy the break from our routine. What's more, times like this present opportunities for everyone to get reacquainted." But she also points out that there is very little to do to pass the time, especially when it rains. Children have mixed reviews of their outing. "I don't have a lot of fun here because there's nothing to do," says one of the boys. "I can't wait until it's warm enough to use the swimming pool." A young girl disagrees, saying she and her sister have fun jumping on the beds.

Yentzu Lake Club was the first of the Victors clubs to open. Located in Hsintien on the border of Wulai, all there is to the club is a single, four-story stucco building with a red-tile roof. But each of the spacious 34 guest rooms extends into a balcony overlooking the lake. Since it was constructed on landfill and is surrounded on three sides by other hotels and resorts, Yentzu Lake Club has limited room to expand, but scaffoldings next to the building indicate an additional small wing is in the works. A basement recreational room is equipped with a ping-pong table, pool table, and video games. Other than a children's wading pool with a miniature cascading waterfall, the club does not have much in terms of outdoor facilities. But, after all, the main attraction of Yentzu Lake Club is the spacious forest park nearby where members can go for fresh air and exercise.

As in all Victors clubs, the staff at Yentzu Lake Club is made up of local residents, and they are always on hand to suggest other ways to enjoy the area. "Not only do our clubs provide more employment opportunities for people in the area," Shih says, "the people themselves are very good information sources for our members."

What does it cost to pass the time away at a vacation club? At Victors, the cost to join is raised each time a new club opens. The one-time membership fee began at US$3,500 three years ago when Yentzu Lake Club was the only club in the chain. Since the opening of Liyu Lake Club, the resort group's third vacation club, the membership fee has been raised to US$7,500 of which US$4,500 is considered a deposit, refundable if the member decides to cancel. An annual fee adds another US$80. Membership gives the holder access to all the Victors clubs, and 10 vacation clubs are expected to be in operation by the end of 1991.

Hard cash is not necessary when applying for membership; Victors can arrange for a five-year bank loan. Wu and Shih assure potential members that join­ing is a stable investment because the company owns all its land and has no chance of going under. Although membership is good for a lifetime, it may also be inherited, transferred, or sold after three years. Victors will even help find prospective buyers.

Every year members receive 10 room coupons, each entitling the holder to one night's stay at any of the clubs. After the first night, a room costs US$100 for each additional night plus a daily maintenance fee of US$10. Altogether, the clubs have 738 rooms, cer­tainly not enough for its nearly 10,000 members. So reservations are a must. At the beginning of each month, a hotline opens up at the main office in Taipei to accept reservations for the following month. "Even then I can't be sure," member Ms. Lin says. "The line is usually busy all morning and by the time I get through, there are no rooms left."

Other members also cite the difficulty in getting room reservations as a major source of dissatisfaction, but management views this as a transitional problem. "Once all the clubs are open, the room situation will ease up," Shih says. And to make sure that the rooms are spread around to more members, only three of the coupons can be used either on a weekend or on a holiday. The company also has set a membership limit of 20,000 to avoid overcrowding and to ensure the rights of old members.

Some members comment that the clubs hardly qualify as bona fide resorts, especially when measured against inter­national standards. "The service is very good, but the facilities are lacking at Yentzu Lake Club," says Mr. Cheng, a new member. "I look forward to visiting Liyu Lake Club." Yet the Suns, who stayed at Liyu Lake Club, also left disappointed. "Getting around is difficult, and there is no place to buy things like snacks," says Mrs. Sun. "There should be a convenience store here or nearby." The restaurant at Liyu Lake Club closes at 8:00 p.m., and guests with late-night hunger pangs have no place else to go for food.

Perhaps expectations would not be so high if the Victors clubs did not tempt comparison with other international resort chains like Club Med. But Victors is a member of Resort Clubs International (RCI), and has reciprocal arrangements with other participating clubs, most of which are in the U.S. and Canada. Still, it is a promising sign for the local leisure industry when a club like Victors models itself after more structured and advanced resort systems in other parts of the world.

Thus far, according to Wu, profits are not yet a significant part of the picture, nor is the bottom line a pressing issue. All the earnings are being spent on the completion of the other clubs because the investors are "more concerned with improving the quality of vacation facilities," he says.

Despite the complaints, more and more people are willing to buy the luxurious lifestyle that vacation clubs sell, even though they may not yet deliver. In the meantime, what the clubs do provide seems worthwhile enough: a respite, however brief, that takes urbanites away from polluted, crowded metropolitan areas to places that still have the fa­miliarity and comforts of home. And, in the island's well-known entrepreneurial style, Victors is meeting another leisure need. The chain has opened facilities for those who want the city along with their leisure. Two city clubs, one each in Taipei and Kaohsiung, are already offering music, dining, dancing, and conference facilities right in the center of town. If necessary, a place to escape from it all does not have to be adjacent to a national forest.