As the Tourism Bureau has decided not to join the bid for the right to stage the New Year’s Eve light show and fireworks display at the Taipei 101 tower, Taipei City’s Department of Information and Tourism said yesterday it would do its best to help find new sponsors.
Local media reported yesterday that the Ministry of Transportation and Communications’ Tourism Bureau, the major sponsor of the Taipei 101 light show in the past two years, would not be able to sponsor the show this year because it has put a lot of its financial resources into boosting tourism in areas hit by Typhoon Morakot.
Other companies are also reluctant to sponsor the show because their budgets have been very tight this year in the wake of the global financial crisis, local media reported.
Commenting on the report, Commissioner Tuo Chung-hwa (庹宗華) of the Taipei City Government’s tourism bureau said yesterday that the New Year’s Eve display at the 101 tower helps to lift Taipei’s international profile as it usually gets international media coverage.
Therefore, the bureau, which is also on a tight budget, will do its best to find the best sponsors at the lowest cost to stage this year’s show, he said.
Last year, the Tourism Bureau, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) jointly won the bid for the right to stage the light show at a cost of NT$21 million (US$650,000).
Every year at midnight, the fireworks display at Taipei 101 — one of the tallest buildings in the world — brings the New Year countdown to a crescendo that is watched by tens of thousands of revelers.
A Tourism Bureau official said 75 TV networks in 26 countries broadcast footage of the New Year’s Eve fireworks at Taipei 101 last year, creating media publicity that the Tourism Bureau estimated to be worth more than NT$100 million.
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