Consumer groups and Taipei City councilors expressed concern over the large number of unused advance tickets for the Taipei International Flora Expo, which closes on Monday. They urged expo organizers to refund the 1.4 million unused tickets, as there are only seven days remaining before the event ends.
The expo, a six-month event at several venues in Taipei’s Datong District (大同) running from Nov. 6 to April 25, sold about 3.5 million advance tickets, with a one-day ticket cost of NT$300. As of yesterday, 1.48 million advanced tickets remained unused.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) said that as the daily maximum capacity of the expo is 150,000 people, it would be almost impossible for the expo to accommodate 1.48 million visitors in seven days.
“Many advance ticket holders hesitated to visit the expo seeing the long lines and packed pavilions. The city government should show more understanding of their hesitation and give ticket refunds,” she said.
Joining Hsu to challenge the city government’s handling of the large number of unused tickets, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Chung Hsiao-ping (鍾小平) said that although the number of visitors to the expo reached 8 million last week, only about 1 million of them were able to enter the popular pavilions in the Xinsheng Park area, which limited the number of visitors to 4,000 per day.
It would be irresponsible for the city government to refuse refunds and ask ticket holders to visit the expo if it cannot guarantee their entrance to all the pavilions, he said.
The Consumer’ Foundation said expo organizers failed to include information about refund policy on the ticket, urging the city government to either accept ticket refunds or offer alternative solutions.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday insisted that refunds were not an option. The sale of advance tickets, he said, was done in accordance with the regulations on charges and fees, adding that the tickets were not refundable once the refund period was over.
According to expo -spokeswoman Ma Chien-hui (馬千惠), advance ticket holders were allowed to return tickets for a full refund within seven days after the expo launched, which means the expo did not give any refunds after Nov. 13.
“The ticket refund policy will not change. We’ve repeatedly reminded ticket holders to use their tickets as soon as possible, so that their money would not go to waste,” she said.
In response to some councilors’ suggestions that the city government accept unused advanced tickets when the pavilions reopened in July, Hau said the city government would consider all possibilities before offering any alternative solutions.
The city government will keep 13 of the 14 pavilions as venues for performances or flora displays.
The pavilions will be reopened to the public in July after renovations.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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