TAIPEI: The whole idea of starting up the Orion Rock Band was to promote Alishan, the famed resort in the Dawu Mountain range.

It was Cheng Yu-ping, the special assistant to the general manager of the Jianfushan Prince Hotel, who suggested the idea to a member of the hotel staff.

The idea came to Cheng when the hotel, near the mountain resort, hosted a dinner for a group of visitors from China Central Television (CCTV) in Beijing three years ago. During the dinner, Cheng asked one of the hotel staff members, Chuang Mo-e, a Chou Tribe aborigine, to sing some folk songs for the guests.

The visitors were richly impressed and quickly urged Chuang to enter Xing Guang Da Dao (meaning "star boulevard"), a CCTV show similar to Britain's Got Talent. Cheng loved the idea, immediately seeing it's great promise for introducing aboriginal culture and promoting Alishan. The television show has an audience of 400 million on the mainland.

That's the story of how Chuang and fellow tribesman Du Voyu formed the Orion Rock Band. The duo entered the Xing Guang Da Dao contest in October last year, wrestling down stage fright and a sudden bout of illness in order to appear on the show. For all the obstacles the duo's rich voices and the expressions of their distinctive culture captivated judges and the audience. In December, they made it to the final round and came out of the annual contest with the prize for second runner-up.

The Orion Rock Band was quickly famous. The pair played concerts and produced CDs, which have become some of Alishan's most popular and best-selling souvenirs among mainland tourists.

Having Orion Rock Band as a sort of "house band" hasn't hurt the hotel either. Bookings by mainland tourists to Jianfushan Prince Hotel are expected to soar 140 percent this year. The occupancy rate averages 70 percent. Revenue is expected to exceed NT$420 million this year. That's a 35 percent year-on-year hike, according to Cheng.

The hotel was built on a NT$4 billion investment amid expectations by other hoteliers that it would be a miserable failure, Cheng said.

Today, Jianfushan Prince is held up as an object lesson in innovative marketing.

Before the A (H1N1) influenza outbreak, the number of mainland tourists to Taiwan was bubbling along at more than 3,000 daily. Straits Exchange Foundation Secretary-General Kao Koong-lian estimated that mainland visitors to Taiwan will total 800,000 this year, generating NT$20 billion of revenue for the island.

Hotels are scrambling to cash in on the influx of visitors from across the Straits.

Taipei's Grand Hotel, reputed for its palace-style architecture, has spent NT$50 million on its first renovation in 20 years. The already substantial Promise Land in Hualien is adding another 500 rooms. The luxurious Ambassador Hotel in Kaohsiung has re-positioned its marketing to target mainlanders.

Sprucing up or adding new wings is only part of the game.

To increase awareness across the Straits, nine five-star hotels in different cities and counties formed the Taiwan Star Alliance in October last year.

Targeting mainlanders earning more than $14,000 a year, the alliance holds joint promotions to establish the "fine hotel" image. It also allows business representatives to sell member hotels' rooms at standard rates.

The strategy is expected to jack up the occupancy rate by 20 percent and revenue by 30 percent, Frank Lin, general manager of the Taipei Ambassador Hotel and the alliance's current chief executive, told media.

Forming alliances is hardly a new strategy for operators of bed-and-breakfast (B&B) guest houses, which are also trying to tap into the new market.

Since two-day weekends became the norm in Taiwan, the numbers of B&B-style guest houses have blossomed from several hundred to about 8,000 over the past decade.

There's an abundance of information on Taiwan guest houses, said Wu Chien-jeng, chairman of the Taiwan B&B Association.

Everything is ready, except an Individual Visit Scheme like in Hong Kong, he said.

Mainlanders still have to travel in groups larger than five and must be accompanied by Taiwan tour guides.

But Democratic Progressive Party legislator Tsai Huang-liang, who used to operate a successful guest house in his hometown Nantou, urges a more measured approach.

Almost half of the 8,000 guest houses are substandard, he said. Unless those places are brought under government regulation, the influx of mainland customers likely will set off cut-throat competition among B&B operators and ruin the existing markets for guest house visitors from places such as Japan and Singapore, he said.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 06/26/2009 page2)