Department of Transportation

Department of Transportation and Department of Economic Development, Taipei City Government, reported its future operating strategies of Maokong’s gondola service to Taipei City Council’s Transportation Committee on December 3rd, 2015, which includes the Taipei city’s upcoming “Tri-Mao Economic Development plan” to transform the Maokong area into Taipei city’s backyard to attract more tourists to take a ride on Maokong’s gondola car to go an in-depth travel and shopping around the area. With a more reasonable ticket fare pricing, the plan can hopefully achieve diminishing Taipei City’s financial budget burden as well as establishing a well industry-connected regional development with Maokong’s gondola at the area.
Department of Transportation, Taipei City Government, stated that the yearly average usage rate of Maokong’s gondola service is around 2.63 million persons for the past three years. The further studies showed that about 60 percent of gondola users only take a ride on gondola cars without taking a short visit around the area for shopping or sightseeing. Compared with the Sun Moon Lake’s gondola service capable of reaching Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village and the well-known Singapore Cable Car linking to the resort island of Sentosa, it is obvious that attraction surrounding Maokong’s gondola is not attractive to tourists. For this reason, The Department of Economic Development (the Office of Commerce) will launch “Tri-Mao Economic Development plan” and its preliminary plan is to push the local experience economy and green humanistic recreational travel tours including five themed tours for the elderly, cyclists, youngsters, and foreign visitors. Also, it will propose to host an annual Maokong’s exclusive “Tea Harvest Festival” and family blessing ceremonies during the tea harvesting time in December. Besides, the three themed tour passports would be released for drawing more visitors to take advantages of them to go taking an in-depth trip and shopping in this Maokong area comprising Taipei Zoo, Maokong’s gondola, and the experience economy activities at local stores.
For the fare price, the Department of Transportation denoted that among the whole Maokong’s gondola users, Taipei’s residents account for 20 percent, foreign visitors make up 37 percent, and the rest is from other cities. Maokong’s gondola has suffered yearly deficit which requires up to NT$ 1 billion yearly financial supply from Taipei City Government. To compare with other gondola service fare, Maokong’s gondola’s current ticket price is NT$ 50 for one-way 3 stations journey (4.03 km), the roundtrip ticket of Sun Moon Lake’s is NT$ 300 (3.73 km), and Singapore’s is NT$ 660 (3.48 km), which shows the striking pricing gap. After the review discussion between the Department of Transportation and the Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation (TRTC), the new pricing policy will not only be able to reflect the operation cost but also capable of increasing the weekday’s usage rates by executing differentiated fare prices between the weekdays and weekends as well as offering special fare prices for residents residing along the gondola’s route. For instance, according to the current planned pricing draft, the one-way 3 stations journey ticket fare price will increase from NT$ 50 to NT$ 150, weekday’s price for Easy Card users is NT$ 120, and children, the elderly, and the disabled users are NT$ 60, same as the local residents along the gondola routes. The Department of Transportation also indicated that though the ticket price is still comparably low to other gondola services, the adoption of high pricing strategy is mainly to overcome the operation cost. In addition, in the future there could be marketing supporting measures and ticket discounts installed to fulfill Maokong District’s related events and cross-industry alliance’s need, which further benefits the gondola’s future operation. For now, the Department of Transportation emphasized that the draft is still not a done deal and are open for advices from all sides.
The TRTC will integrate the transportation services including Taipei’s Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), Maokong’s Gondola, and attraction shuttle buses to provide more comprehensive transportation service throughout the Maokong district with the hope that only 10 dollars for the shuttle bus fare charge can let visitors travel around the whole Maokong district to experience and shop at local shops, benefiting the local industry development. In conclusion, Maokong’s gondola has become Taipei City’s one of the top 10 rising attraction spots. With the “Tri-Mao Economic Development plan” and the well integration and enhancement of the public transportation service, the hope of making Maokong become a green leisure touring area with thriving local tourism industries can be expecting.

2015-12-31