Taipei as world’s sixth best spot for New Year’s Eve

2014-12-27

Taipei City has recently been ranked by global hotel booking website Agoda among the top 10 choices to welcome the New Year.

Conducted in November 2014, Agoda’s latest Travel Smart Survey asked more than 7,000 travelers to choose among 24 world cities the place they prefer to celebrate the New Year. Taipei won 7.94 percent of the votes, ranking it No. 6.

Bangkok came in as the most popular spot at 13.60 percent, followed by Hong Kong, Bali, Tokyo and Singapore in that order. Unexpectedly, the more famous tourist destinations like New York, Paris, London and Sidney were ranked between No. 7 and No. 10.

Taipei City attracted more than 1 million visitors for its New Year’s Eve festivities last year, with the largest number of overseas travelers from Malaysia, followed by mainland China, Singapore and Hong Kong.

The survey revealed that 58 percent of the respondents like to spend the holiday with their family members, 20 percent with their significant other, and 18 percent with friends, while only 4 percent preferred to stay at home alone.

In addition, the online poll indicated that 42 percent of the respondents enjoy attending a cozy private party. Only 27 percent seek such large-scale activities as the crystal ball descending ceremony at Times Square in New York or the fireworks show at Taipei 101.

Meanwhile, 24 percent tend to relax at home watching TV. The remaining 7 percent cannot be bothered to wait for the final countdown and will go to bed as usual.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=225612&CtNode=413)