TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The new chair of Taipei City’s Grand Hotel, Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭), said Friday (Aug. 30) she wants a Michelin star and more visitors from the United States and Thailand.

Yeh is a former transportation minister and chair of the Taiwan Visitors Association (TVA). The 14-story, 500-room red hotel built in classical Chinese style is managed by the Taiwan Friendship Foundation under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.

Yeh said her goal was that one day, staff would tell her that the Grand Hotel had received a Michelin star, per CNA. She described how you could see the Keelung River close by and Mount Guanyin in the distance, with the hotel satisfying all tourist needs from food to shopping.

With 20% of visitors staying at the hotel originating from Japan, she said she planned to attract more international travelers. She named the US and Thailand as two countries where the Grand Hotel should go looking for more visitors.

The hotel is a historic institution which can use its past as an interesting story, said Yeh, emphasizing her own background working in advertising for 20 years. The Grand Hotel was built in the 1950s and welcomed numerous incumbent and former world leaders, including Dwight Eisenhower, the only US president to visit Taiwan while in office.