Taiwan has the fourth-highest cost of dining out in the Asia-Pacific region, trailing only South Korea, Australia and Singapore, a survey on consumer behavior conducted by MasterCard in the second half of last year said.
The Survey on Consumer Purchasing Priorities — Dining for 2017 said dining out spending per month averaged NT$7,178 in Taiwan, compared with NT$8,427 in Singapore NT$11,970 in Australia and NT$11,989 in South Korea.
Taiwan’s average monthly dining-out spend per consumer topped China’s NT$6,940, said the survey, which was conducted in the last three months of last year and not limited to MasterCard holders.
MasterCard said Taiwan’s dining-out spending rose 44 percent from a year earlier, much higher than the average growth rate of 10.59 percent in the region.
The survey found that 78 percent of respondents in Taiwan ate at fast food restaurants and 78 percent went to food courts in shopping malls or department stores.
About 77 percent of respondents said they liked to visit middle-range restaurants, and 31 percent said they ate at high-end restaurants, the survey found.
Only 15 percent of respondents said they went to bars, with consumers aged 30 to 40 saying they went to bars 4.5 times a month on average, the highest level among all age groups, the survey said.
MasterCard said average spending per month in bars was NT$2,425 in this year’s survey, up from NT$1,043 from last year’s survey.
Many Taiwanese consumers studied reviews of food vendors or restaurants before eating, with 64 percent of them going online to read evaluations, the highest level in the region, the survey said.
The survey, conducted from October to December last year collected 9,123 questionnaires from respondents aged 18-64 who have bank accounts in 18 countries or regions, MasterCard said.
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