Taipei Financial Center Corp (TFCC, 台北金融大樓), the owner of the nation’s tallest skyscraper, Taipei 101, has added facilities to its rooftop and other spaces to increase visitor volume and revenue, top executives said yesterday.
The 15-year-old building, the most popular tourist attraction in Taipei, in the past six months spent NT$20 million (US$634,679) renovating some floors to augment tourist offerings, including a limited, “thrilling” walk on the rooftop for NT$3,000 per trip, TFCC president Angela Chang (張振亞) said.
Dubbed “a walk on the cloud,” the new experience is intended to increase visitor volume and ticket sales by 5 percent, Chang said, adding that ticket sales generate 90 percent of overall revenue.
The company, which operates and leases shopping centers and office space in the building, this year aims to attract 2.2 million visitors, up from 2.18 million last year, as a decline in Chinese tourists has stabilized, she said.
Group travelers from China last year accounted for 46 percent of visitors, she added.
About 26 percent of foreign tourists visit Taipei 101 and hopefully the new experience would raise the figure to 28 percent, Chang said.
The outdoor rooftop walk is different from a visit to the Taipei 101 Observatory on the 89th floor, which costs NT$600 per person.
A maximum of 12 visitors can take the nerve-wrecking, but safe walk in each of three time slots, TFCC chief operations officer Michael Liu (劉家豪) said, adding that guests could enjoy coffee and desserts while waiting on the 101st floor.
Both areas were formerly off-limits to visitors and would remain shut in the event of a windstorm, Liu said.
The tower has 101 stories above ground and another five below.
In the first five months of this year, TFCC’s revenue jumped 15 percent annually as the opening of the Breeze Nanshan department store early this year has helped attract more people to Taipei’s prime Xinyi District (信義) and many shop at the Taipei 101 Mall, Liu said.
“The performance beat our expectations and might grow stronger in the second half of this year with the peak season approaching,” Liu said.
The second half of the year normally generates 60 percent of annual revenue.
The occupancy rate of the building’s office space hit 96 percent, with average rents of NT$3,500 per ping (3.3m2) per month, thanks to growing demand for Grade-A office space from e-commerce operators and technology firms, Liu said.
Office space in Taipei 101 helps boost corporate visibility, market watchers said.
The renovations also included a large projection screen on the fifth floor to display different tourist attractions in Taiwan.
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