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🇹🇼 Taiwan /Economy & Trade

Taichung Transport Pass Sells Less Than Two Tickets a Day, Councilors Outraged

From Liberty Times · (13m ago) Chinese Critical tone

Translated from Chinese, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

TLDR

- Taichung City Councilor Xie Zhizhong and others criticized the

Taichung's "Taichung GO" transportation pass, launched in 2023, has been a dismal failure, selling an average of just 1.6 tickets per day over three years. City councilors are demanding a complete overhaul of the pass's planning and integration with local attractions and businesses to truly boost tourism.

Taichung's "Taichung GO" transportation pass, launched in 2023, has been a dismal failure, selling an average of just 1.6 tickets per day over three years.

— Xie ZhizhongCriticizing the sales performance of the transportation pass.

Councilors Xie Zhizhong, Zhang Yuyan, Wang Liren, and Huang Shouda revealed that since its 2023 launch, only 1,792 "Taichung GO" passes have been sold. This translates to a pathetic average of less than two tickets daily. The pass offers unlimited bus and MRT rides within a set timeframe, but its poor sales indicate a fundamental disconnect with tourist needs.

The redemption threshold is too high, which cannot stimulate the purchase of the pass at all.

— Xie ZhizhongExplaining the failure of the points redemption system.

Adding insult to injury, the points redemption system for the pass has been equally unsuccessful. Last year, only three medium-sized Americanos and ten medium lattes were redeemed. Even more embarrassingly, there were zero redemptions for iRent car or scooter hours. The high redemption threshold makes it nearly impossible to actually use the points, failing to incentivize pass purchases.

The overall sales performance is sluggish, which does not help promote tourism at all.

— Xie ZhizhongCommenting on the poor sales of the "Taiwan Tour Bus" pass.

The "Taiwan Tour Bus" pass, promoted by the Tourism and Information Bureau, fared no better, selling only 658 tickets last year, averaging just 1.8 tickets per day. The councilors argue that the current pass designs are too restrictive and lack flexibility. They also point to a significant lack of integration with nearby attractions and local businesses, failing to create a cohesive tourist experience. The city government must conduct a thorough review of the pass's planning to make it an effective tool for promoting tourism.

The city government should comprehensively review the planning of the pass to truly play a role in promoting tourism.

— Xie ZhizhongDemanding a review of the transportation pass.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Liberty Times in Chinese. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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