The Taipei 101 Observatory could see its visitor numbers tumble to a record low this year, as border controls have reduced foreign tourist arrivals, its main supply of customers.
The number of visits might drop below 500,000 this year, less than 25 percent of the 2 million visits reported last year, said Angela Chang (張振亞), president of Taipei Financial Center Corp (TFCC, 台北金融大樓), which operates the skyscraper.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, foreign tourists contributed 80 percent of visits to the observatory, dubbed the nation’s hottest tourist spot.
Photo: Bloomberg
Like tourist hotels in Taipei, the observatory has shifted its focus to domestic visitors and the strategy, coupled with reduced admission fees, resulted in there being 220,000 visits during the June-to-August period, Chang said.
Taiwanese now make up 99 percent of its visitors, she said.
The observatory is seeking to bolster business by extending its discounts through this year, with tickets costing NT$300 per adult and NT$190 per senior citizen, Chang said, adding that adult visitors may take two children under the age of 12 with them free of charge.
The arrangement is intended to attract families, she said, after a promotion campaign that lowered admission fees to NT$150 per person expired yesterday.
Domestic visitors might not completely fill the void left by foreign tourists, Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評) said earlier, after downgrading the credit outlook for TFCC from “stable” to “negative.”
The ratings agency said that international travel would remain muted as the number of COVID-19 infections is still on the rise worldwide.
Border controls would reduce the number of visitors to the observatory and its observation deck, denting its revenue by up to 80 percent this year, the ratings agency said.
Visitors to the observatory rose to a record high of 2.8 million in 2015, but dropped by 10 percent in each of the following years due to chilling cross-strait ties.
Chinese tourists used to make up the biggest chunk of visitors, followed by tourists from Japan and South Korea, Chang said.
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