Total redemption rate of night market vouchers hits a new high of 72.6%, night market business benefits exceed 1.12 billion yuan

The Ministry of Economic Affairs, in conjunction with the Tourism Bureau of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications' "Expanded Domestic Travel Autumn-Winter Tour" travel subsidy program, issued 200-yuan night market vouchers. The policy was launched on September 16, 2019 (ROC year 108) and expired at the end of February 2020 (ROC year 109), and the final batch of night market vouchers has been redeemed. The Ministry of Economic Affairs stated that it has already compiled statistics on the night market vouchers: a total of 10.33 million vouchers were issued and 7.5 million were redeemed, for a total redemption rate of 72.6%, estimated to have created more than 1.1 billion yuan in night market business. Were it not for the impact of the epidemic, the redemption rate would have been even higher.

Kuo Kun-ming, director of the Central Region Office of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, stated that the redemption rate for night market vouchers climbed all the way from more than 20% in October 2019 (ROC year 108) to 45% by the end of December 2019 (ROC year 108), and after use expired at the end of February 2020 (ROC year 109), the final total redemption rate reached 72.6%. According to a Tourism Bureau survey, in the past about 10% of domestic travelers visited night markets while traveling, and this figure is now 7 times that of the past, effectively boosting night market crowds. As for redemption by region: the northern region accounted for 1.79 million vouchers (23.9%), the central region 1.37 million (18.3%), the southern region 2.6 million (34.7%), and the eastern region 1.74 million (23.1%). This shows that after the night market voucher policy was launched, it created considerable tourism, accommodation and consumption benefits in key regions such as the south and east.

The night market voucher policy was an additional domestic travel measure complementing the Tourism Bureau of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications' "Expanded Autumn-Winter Travel Program," aimed at directing domestic travel crowds to stay and spend locally. The top 5 night markets with the highest redemption rates this time were, in order: Dongdamen Night Market in Hualien, Garden Night Market in Tainan, Liuhe Night Market in Kaohsiung, Fengjia Tourist Night Market in Taichung, and Wenhua Road Night Market in Chiayi City.

Kuo Kun-ming, director of the Central Region Office of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, stated that this night market voucher policy was quite successful, and he especially thanked the hotel and lodging operators and night market vendors for the assistance and cooperation they provided during the campaign. For the subsequent revitalization vouchers, the experience gained this time will be reviewed and further improved, in the hope of restoring the bustling business of night market operators.