The Taiwan Design Expo in Hsinchu on Friday attracted a record 640,000 visitors, most of whom were younger than 29 years old, the city government said yesterday.
The exposition opened on Thursday last week and closes today, with Hsinchu Park and the old town area on either side of the Hsinchu Railway Station serving as the main venues.
The city government has worked with Chunghwa Telecom to track the numbers of visitors through big data tools and found that visitors to the show on Friday exceeded 640,000 people, a record since the show’s opening, Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅) said.
Photo: Hung Mei-hsiu, Taipei Times
Visitors have been increasing daily since its opening, while the railway station on Friday, the first day of the Double Ten National Day holiday weekend, recorded more than 56,000 passengers passing through the station, he said.
People from Taipei, Taoyuan, New Taipei City and Hsinchu city and county made up more than 70 percent of the attendees, while Japanese were among the largest group of foreign visitors, he said.
Additionally, more than 40 percent of visitors to the show were younger than 29, while the old town area attracted more people younger than 19, the Hsinchu Department of Transportation and Tourism said.
The average age of visitors might be even younger, as many people younger than 14 do not have cellphones and therefore were not included in the telecom’s data, it said, adding that the number of female visitors was slightly higher than males.
From 2:30pm to 3pm was the peak time for visitors, while there were fewer people in the morning, Lin said, advising people to arrive early to avoid crowds.
Big data tools allow the city to optimize shuttle bus schedules and evaluate if the event attracts its target audience as planned, he added.
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